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THE 


DIVINE ORIGIN 


OF 

CHRISTIANITY. 


By J. G. PIKE, 

Author of^Persuasives to Early Piety. 5 ’ 


D‘6 VER 


PUBLISHED EY THE TRUSTEES OF THE FREE 
WILL BAPTIST CONNECTION. 

1S36. 





300 


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THE 


DIVINE ORIGIN 

OF 

CHRISTIANITY. 


CHAPTER I. 

On the importance of the inquiry as to the 
divine origin of Christianity. 

1. The importance of the question, “ Is Christiani¬ 
ty divine ?” argued from the fact that the wisest 
and greatest of men have acknowledged its di¬ 
vine origin—2. From the nature of its discover¬ 
ies—3. From the demonstrable fact, that it is the 
true religion, or that none is so—4. From the 
mode of its promulgation —5. From the multi¬ 
tude of its martyrs—6. Remarks on the situation 
of infidels and on their desire to proselyte others. 

1. There cannot be a more important ques¬ 
tion proposed than this :— <c Is the religion 
of Christ from God, or is it a cunningly-de¬ 
vised fable (” Many remarks might be offer¬ 
ed to illustrate the overwhelming importance 
of this inquiry. The following deserve at¬ 
tention, Christianity has been acknowledg¬ 
ed divine by the wisest, the greatest, and the 
most talented of mankind. This fact is not 
brought forward as an evidence of the divin© 



4 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


origin of Christianity, but as a fact that shows 
the Unreasonableness and folly of neglecting 
to investigate its evidences. Bacon, the rath¬ 
er of modern philosophy, who has been rep¬ 
resented as “ the wisest and brightest of man¬ 
kind,” was a Christian. Newton, the most 
distinguished of philosophers, whose fame 
spreads through an admiring world, wrote in 
defence of Christianity. Locke, the deepest 
of thinkers, “ whose office was to detect the 
errors of thinking, by going up to the foun¬ 
tains of thought, and to direct into the proper 
track of reasoning the devious minds of 
man,”—Locke, thus qualified to judge of ev¬ 
idence, in his latter years studied little but 
the bible. Milton, who for exalted genius 
stands unequalled, who possessed a mind 
“ rich with all that man ever knew,” sung 
in those poems that will hand down his name 
to the last period of time, the hallowed themes 
of Christianity. Howard, the benevolent 
friend of the prisoner, of whom a poet, that 
was no Christian, writes,— 

-The spirits of the just, 

When first arrayed in Virtue’s purest robe. 

They saw her Howard traversing the globe, 
Mistook a mortal for an angel guest, 

And ask’d what seraph foot the earth imprest. 
Onward he moves ; disease and death retire 
And murmuring demons hate him, and admire. 

Howard was a Christian, and Christianity 
made him what he was. Washington, the 
patriot whom all admire, avowed himself a 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 


5 


Christian. But the time would fail to tell of 
Johnson, and Addison, and Jones, and Boyle, 
and Hampden, and Russell, and of thousands 
more of the most intelligent and distinguished 
of mankind, in the different classes of socie¬ 
ty, who have investigated the claims cf Chris¬ 
tianity, and confessed its divinity. Is there 
not reason to think that religion may he true 
whose evidences such men have investigated, 
and whose truth and divinity they then ac¬ 
knowledged ? Is there not reason to believe 
that those who treat it with indifference or 
hostility, really know nothing respecting its 
nature and its claims? or are unwilling to sub¬ 
mit to its requirements ? Is there not cause 
to think, they deserve a reproof similar to 
that given by sir Isaac Newton to Dr. Hal¬ 
ley :— te 1 am always glad to hear you when 
you speak about astronomy, or other parts of 
the mathematics, because that is a subject 
you have studied and well understand ; but 
you should not talk of Christianity, for you > 
have not studied it : I have ; and am certain 
you know nothing of the matter.”* Does it 
display wisdom or folly to treat with neglect 
or contempt what Bacon and Milton, and 
Newton, and Locke, and Johnson,and Wash¬ 
ington, revered and loved ? Does it display 
wisdom, to profess to be wise by scorning 
what the wisest and most distinguished of 
mankind have revered as the truest wisdom ? 
Rather does not such a course display the 


* Emlyn’s Life. 


6 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


self-conceit and ignorance of the most de¬ 
structive folly ? 

2. Another consideration, illustrating the 
importance of the inquiry before us, is the na¬ 
ture of the Christian religion. Christianity 
challenges the attention of every reasonable 
being ; and the most senseles« creature in the 
universe is the person who refuses to consid¬ 
er its claims. Were there any reasonable 
doubt of its truth, which there is not, such is 
its nature, that it imperiously demands atten¬ 
tion. If true (and it is so,) it contains the 
most momentous truths we can possibly be¬ 
lieve. All those truths, in discovering which 
the wisest of mankind have consumed their 
days, when weighed with it are lighter than 
vanity. For if it is true, and should a care¬ 
less unbeliever peruse this page, let him in¬ 
dulge the reflection, the God whom it dis¬ 
covers is that awful Being whom we must 
meet; the Savior it proclaims is the Judge 
before whom we must appear ; the judgment 
it foretells, is that at which our doom for 
eternity will be past ; the solemn scenes of 
the future world which it discloses, are scenes 
we shall behold ; the endless life it has 
brought to light, is the life which we must 
live ; and either the heaven or the hell which 
it discovers, must be our portion through all 
the joyful or dreadful periods of a boundless 
eternity. How important is inquiry respect¬ 
ing a religion that spreads its influence over 
a whole eternity ! which, if true and embrac¬ 
ed, leads to eternal life! which, if true and re- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 1 

jected, sinks him that rejects it to eternal 
damnation ! 

3. Let it be written upon your heart that 
the gospel is every thing or nothing at all. 
If false, it were nothing ; if true, it is every 
thing. Nor is the question between this and 
some other system almost equal to it. It is 
this, or none. If this be not divine, none 
is ; if this do not guide you, there is none 
to guide ; if this do not comfort, there is 
none to comfort you ; if this do not truly dis¬ 
play a Saviour, there is no Saviour for you; 
if this do not truly reveal a happier world, 
there is none to reveal it. Without Christi¬ 
anity you may know you have a Maker ; his 
eternal power and Godhead appear in his 
works ; but you know } r ou are guilty, and if 
the gospel be not divine, how that then un¬ 
known Maker may treat the guilty you know 
not, and cannot know. He may frown you 
into nothing ; you may die with beasts ; or, 
without the possibility of escape, burn with de¬ 
mons, for aught you know, or ever can 
know, unless you may leant it from the bible. 
If Christianity were false, you are a creature 
without a guide, a sinner without a Saviour j 
whose past life is full of guilt, and whose fu¬ 
ture prospect is full of doubt, and anxiety, 
and fear. 

A deist, who suffered death for high trea¬ 
son, not many years ago, observed to a fel¬ 
low-sufferer, just before bis execution, the* - 
in a few minutes they should know the grand 
secret; a tacit confession that “ shadow 


s 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


clouds, and darkness,” rest upon the future, 
in the case of those who reject the gospel; 
that without it, nothing respecting eternity 
can he known. How awful in such a condi¬ 
tion to enter eternity ! 

The late learned Mr. Jacob Bryant relates 
a circumstance that may enforce these re¬ 
marks. u When I was in camp with the 
duke of Marlborough, an officer of my ac- 
quaintance desired me, upon my making a 
short excursion, to take him with rue in my 
carriage. Our conversation was rather de¬ 
sultory, as is usual upon such occasions; and 
among other things, he asked me rather ab¬ 
ruptly, what were my notions about religion. 

I answered evasively, or at least indeter¬ 
minately, as his inquiry seemed to proceed 
merely from an idle curiosity ; and I did not 
see that any happy consequences could ensue 
from an explanation. However, some time 
afterwards he made a visit at my house, and 
stayed with me a few days. During this in¬ 
terval, one evening he put the question to me 
again ; and at the same time added, that he 
should be really obliged if I would give him 
my thoughts in general upon the subject. Up¬ 
on this 1 turned towards him, and after a 
short pause told him, that my opinion lay in 
a small compass ; and he should have it in as 
compendious a manner as the subject would 
permit. Religion, I said, is either true or 
false. This is the alternative: there is no 
medium. If it be the latter—merely an idle 
system, and a cunningly-devised fable, let us 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


9 


eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. The 
world is before us, let us take all due advan¬ 
tage, and choose what may seem best ; for 
we have no prospect of any life to come ; 
much less any assurance. But if religion be 
a truth, it is the most serious truth of anv 
with which we can possibly be engaged ; an 
article of the greatest importance. It de¬ 
mands our most diligent inquiry to obtain a 
knowledge of it ; and a fixed resolution to a- 
bide by it, when obtained. For religion 
teaches us, that this life bears no propor¬ 
tion to the life to come. You see, then, my 
good friend, that an alternative of the ut¬ 
most consequence lies before you. Make, 
therefore, your election as you may judge 
best; and Heaven direct you in your deter¬ 
mination! He told me that he was much 
affected with the crisis to which I brought 
the object of inquiry ; and I trust that it was 
attended with happy consequences after¬ 
wards.” 

4. In the manner in which Christianity 
professes to have been revealed to mankind, 
there is something so unspeakably grand as 
to claim the most devout attention. If an 
angel clothed in celestial glory were to ap¬ 
pear upon earth, and to proclaim to all the 
inhabitants of the world, that he came to 
bring them a message from the Almighty, 
hardened as men are in sin, could they refuse 
to listen to such a messenger r But if Chris¬ 
tianity is true, that was published by a mes¬ 
senger inexpressibly more awful. No mighty 


10 


THE DIVINE OR[GIN 


angel, but He from whom all the angelic 
hosts derive their being and their bliss, ap¬ 
peared as the messenger of his Father’s love. 
Not indeed glowing in the splendors of heav¬ 
en, but displaying the power and knowl¬ 
edge o t a God ; and letting some beams of his 
divine glory shine through the veil of mortal 
clay. He, whose hand stretched forth the 
firmament, and formed the solid world, is rep¬ 
resented in scripture as having in our nature 
hungered, and thirsted, and wept, and bled, 
and groaned, and died for man ! What are 
all wonders to this wonder! What all that 
astounds the human mind, and overpowers its 
faculties, to this far more astonishing, but 
most delightful fact!—God incarnate for mis¬ 
erable man ! the King of kings a servant! 
the Lord of angels a man of wo! the Holy 
One, in whom the Father delighted, frowned 
on by him, because loaded with the guilt of 
millions; the Giver of life to innumerable 
multitudes, a victim to death, and a tenant 
of the grave! Here what countless wonders 
meet! 

5. To these remarks may be added, that 
another consideration, showing the import¬ 
ance of the present question, arises from the 
1 act, that almost innumerablemuItitudes have 
laid down their lives for the sake of religion. 
Though some deride the gospel, and more 
neglect it, yet multitudes are sensible as they 
of earthly comforts, and as ready to en¬ 
joy them, have shed their heart’s blood for it; 
and, doubtless, were the call now made, thou- 


OF CHRISTIANITY - . 


11 


sands more would show the same Christian 
courage; would again throng the bleeding way 
to heaven; and once more prove to a deluded 
world that religion is better than life. If a hun¬ 
dred men were sent to Newgate, then tried, 
condemned, and executed for resolutely main¬ 
taining some fact, which, if true, would be 
not more astonishing than important to all 
mankind, would not the inquiry from one end 
of the country to the other be, What was it 
for which those men suffered ? How deserv¬ 
ing then of attention is that religion, for which 
not a hundred only, but thousands,and literally 
millions, have forsaken kindred, and country, 
and friends, and life! O think, it is not for a 
fable that myriads have bled! it is not for a 
fable that myriads would bleed! O hear 
those martyred millions as it were calling on 
you from their tombs, and bidding you at- 
lend ! The voice of their sufferings, the cry 
of their blood, poured on the earth like water, 
is, that the religion of the gospel is the one 
thing needful. 

6. Before we pass on to view some parts 
of the direct evidence that supports the 
claims of Christianity, it may not be improper 
to remark, that the situation of infidels is such 
as naturally prompts them to determined hos¬ 
tility, and leads them to cherish the desire of 
proselyting others to their ruinous unbelief. If 
Christianity is true, not the slightest glimpse 
of hope remains for those who continue to 
be its opposers. As sure as they exist, per¬ 
dition must be their portion, Mark xvi. 16 


12 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


John iii. S6. If Christianity prove true, their 
wickedness must hereafter appear unuttera¬ 
bly great, in rejecting a Saviour so glorious, 
so benevolent, possessed of so many claims 
upon their hearts, and exhibiting to view 
such divine compassion. Hence, on the 
supposition of its truth, they resemble sub¬ 
jects engaged in rebellion against a lawful 
and benevolent sovereign, who invites sub¬ 
mission, with promises of mercy and favor; 
but who declares, that if rebellion be continu¬ 
ed, to all that are taken in arms, no quarter can 
possibly be given, or mercy shown. In such 
a case, those who would still be rebels would 
rush into determined hostility. If Christian¬ 
ity is divine, in such a hopeless situation does 
every one stand, to whose view its claims are 
presented, but who rejects or slights those 
claims. 

Hence, too, will spring an anxiety for 
making proselytes. When a person sets 
himself to oppose a subject of general belief 
among the wisest and the greatest, fear that 
he may be mistaken will, though unacknowl¬ 
edged, at times steal into the breast; and to 
an infidel the least possibility, much more 
probability, of the truth of Christianity, must 
be dreadful. But every convert to infidel¬ 
ity tends to prop up his hopes that Christi¬ 
anity may prove a fable, and that the dread¬ 
ful judgment it announces is delusion. Mr. 
Cecil was once an infidel. He remarks, “ I 
was a professed infidel, but then I liked to be 
an infidel in company rather than alone. I 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


1 Sr 


was wretched when by myself. These prin¬ 
ciples, maxims and data (those of Christian¬ 
ity) spoiled my jollity. With my compan¬ 
ions 1 could sometimes stifle them: like 
embers we kept one another warm.” Young 
reader, are you tempted to infidelity? Do 
companions laugh at your regard to Christi¬ 
anity, and invite you with them to throw 
off its restraints? O pause! If you become 
an infidel in company, can you be one alone? 
Can you be one on the bed of sickness? Can 
you be one at the gates of death, and on the 
verge of eternity? If you can be one when 
you spend an hour alone, can you be one when 
you die alone, and when you go alone to meet 
your God ? Are you tempted to be an infidel? 
O pause! Think of the awful predicament 
to which you would reduce yourself. You 
must either prove that false which the great¬ 
est and wisest of men have examined and 
acknowledged to be divine, or you must per¬ 
ish forever. You must either demonstrate 
that religion false which has stood unhurt 
amidst the attacks of heathens, Jews, and in¬ 
fidels, for eighteen hundred years, or you 
must sink to ruin under the horrid guilt of 
being the wicked opponent of all that is god¬ 
like and divine. You must prove that for 
which millions have bled as martyrs to be a 
fable, or you must be condemned by Him 
whose grace and terror, if true, it reveals. 
Prove it false, and you have nothing to 
dread from its Author ; but if you cannot ac¬ 
complish this hard task, you must live, and 


14 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


you must die, as the determined foe of the 
God of the gospel, laden with guilt too 
great for description to reach, and deserving 
of ruin too dreadful for imagination to paint. 
O pause! pause! when this is the awful al¬ 
ternative. 


CHAPTER II. 

Christianity proved to be from God , by the 
miracles which were wrought in attesta¬ 
tion of its divine origin. 

1. The divinity of Christianity argued from the mir¬ 
acles performed in its confirmation—2. Tests of 
real miracles—3. That these were actually wrought, 
argued from the silence of its enemies—4. Which 
argument is pursued in a familiar illustration—5. 
From the testimonies of its enemies—6. Remarks 
and reflections on those testimonies—7. From the 
testimony of suffering friends who were eye-wit¬ 
nesses to those miracles—8. This argument 
strengthened by the rapid extension of Christian¬ 
ity ; testimonies of Tacitus, Juvenal, Pliny, 
Lucian, Justin Martyr, Tertullian—9. This rapid 
spread of Christianity more remarkable when con¬ 
trasted with the progress of modern missions, and 
when the opposition it encountered is considered 
—10. Illustrations of the spirit and conduct of 
the primitive Christians. 

1. One of those powerful proofs which attest 
that the gospel is from God, is found in the 
miracles that were wrought by the Lord Je- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 


15 


sus and his apostles. It is surely needless to 
argue, that miracles like theirs, are a sufficient 
proof of the divinity of any system they attest. 
Were you to see a person professing to be a 
messenger from God, give sight to the blind, 
speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, life 
to the dead, could you doubt for one moment 
whether his professions were true? It is 
true, the juggling tricks of some imposters 
may appear strange and unaccountable ta 
persons unacquainted with their delusive arts, 
but imposters never restored the dead to life. 
The miracles ascribed to our Lord and his 
disciples were of such a nature that there 
could be no imposition in them. He cured 
the sick by a word, even where the diseases 
were most obstinate, as leprosy and palsy. 
At his command the blind received sight, the 
lame walked, the deaf heard, the dumb spake, 
the maimed, (those who had lost a limb,) had 
their limbs restored, and even the dead a- 
rose. He walked on the sea ; the winds and 
waves hearkened to his voice, and tempests 
grew still at his bidding. He exerted creating 
power when five loaves and a few small 
fishes fed above five thousand persons. The 
miracles of his apostles were equally great. 
Diseases fled at their word, and the dead 
came back to life.* Miracles like these ad¬ 
mit of no deception. If we saw a person 
stretched lifeless in a coffin, 'no juggling 

* I conceive it needless to refer to the particular 
miracles alluded to, the reader cannot peruse the 
New Testament attentively without noticing them. 


16 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


tricks of an impostor could persuade us that 
he had called the departed spirit hack to its 
feeble tabernacle, and restored the dead to 
a second life. If we saw another lingering on 
a sick-bed, burnt with fever, or motionless 
with palsy, nothing could convince us that he 
was restored to health, unless he really were 
so. If we beheld a street crowded with per¬ 
sons bearing the sick on beds and couches, 
that they might get them healed by the word 
of another, and then saw those persons walk¬ 
ing back to their homes in perfect health, we 
should certainly exclaim, cc There is no im¬ 
position here!” If we were walking down 
another street, and beheld the sick laid a- 
long its sides on their couches of affliction, 
that the shadow of a man passing down it 
might overshadow some of them, and then 
beheld these rising from their beds of suffer¬ 
ing in sudden health and vigor, what could 
we say, but, “ This is not delusion !” If the 
dumb suddenly spake to us, if the blind look¬ 
ed on us, and the deaf heard our voice, we 
still must acknowledge tc There is no impo¬ 
sition here!” Such were the miracles of the 
Lord and his apostles. 

Infidels may ask, Where is your proof that 
these miracles were wrought ? Are you not, 
though not deluded by juggling tricks, de¬ 
ceived by narratives of what never happen¬ 
ed ? We confidently answer, Mo: we have 
proof, abundant proof, that these miracles 
were wrought, in the constrained silence of 
our Lord’s enemies; in the acknowledgments 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 17 

of some of those enemies ; and in the testi¬ 
monies of his suffering friends. 

2. The opponents of Christianity frequent¬ 
ly attempt to confound the miracles of its 
founder and his apostles, with the pretended 
miracles of the Roman church, or of some 
wild sects in later ages. Probably some un¬ 
believers are unhappy enough to be so prej¬ 
udiced and ignorant, as not to perceive the 
wide distinction which exists between them ; 
while others are so wicked and ungenerous as 
to endeavor to represent the former as desti¬ 
tute of any better evidence than the latter. 
Our opponents will tell us, that various sys¬ 
tems of acknowledged superstition have had 
miracles urged in their support. The wide 
difference between these pretended miracles 
and those of Christianity, has been demon¬ 
strated in a way which infidelity can never 
refute, by Leslie, Douglas, and Paley. They 
have proposed various tests by which to try 
the accounts of miracles. The miracles of 
Christianity will bear the trial proposed, but 
none will bear it besides. The following may 
be represented as the most important of 
these tests of examination. To evidence a 
miracle to be genuine, the account of it should 
be published soon after the miracle occurred 
—it should be published in the neighborhood 
where the miracle was wrought—it should 
be published in such circumstances as to se¬ 
cure an examination of the fact related. 
These rules must commend themselves to 
any reasonable mind. Tried liy them, the 



15 


THK DIVINE ORIGIN 


miracles of popery and of paganism cannot 
stand. Some of them have been published 
long after the time when the fact related is 
said to have taken place, and when all oppor¬ 
tunity of examination had long since ceas¬ 
ed. Other accounts have been first promul¬ 
gated in distant countries, while no evi¬ 
dence existed that any knowledge of such 
facts was to be found in the country where 
they were said to have occurred. Many are 
stated to have taken place where no oppor¬ 
tunity existed for examining their truth or 
falsehood—where they were credulously be¬ 
lieved by superstitious and deluded men— 
where no enemy was found to investigate 
their claims, or where a hint of imposture 
would have been deemed an unpardonable 
heresy. Other narratives have been wonder¬ 
ful tales, in which no one was peculiarly in¬ 
terested, but as far as human welfare was 
concerned, it was a matter of perfect indiffer¬ 
ence whether they were received or rejected. 
How different to all these were the miracles 
of Christianity. The accounts respecting 
them were published on the spot—they were 
published soon after the crucifixion of the 
Saviour, and while miracles by the hands 
of the apostles were taking place—they were 
published in the midst of enemies—they spe¬ 
cify places in which miracles occurred, and 
gave every opportunity for full investigation, 
while, instead of its being a matter of little 
moment whether they were received or re¬ 
jected, the dearest interests of multitudes 
were connected with the decision. 


OP CHRISTIANITY". 


19 


3. Under these circumstances, a powerful 
proof in confirmation of the truth of the 
statements of the miracles of our Lord and 
his disciples, arises from the constrained si¬ 
lence of their enemies. The most effectual 
blow which they could have given to Chris¬ 
tianity, would have been to prove, that the 
accounts respecting these miracles were false, 
and that they were never wrought. Modern 
infidels perceive this, and therefore try now 
to disprove what their predecessors in unbe¬ 
lief did not dare deny. V"et if these miracles 
had not been true, our Lord’s enemies had 
every advantage of proving them false. They 
were not huddled up in the dark, like the 
tricks of popery, but were wrought in the 
most public manner, in the principal towns 
and cities of various countries, before ene¬ 
mies, and sometimes even in the midst of an¬ 
gry enemies ; were performed in various in¬ 
stances on objects well known to have been 
disordered, and were exposed to the most 
rigid scrutiny of those whose interest it was 
to prove them false. Had all these miracles 
been confined to one obscure town or vil¬ 
lage, there might have been cause to su-spect 
imposture. But the Lord’s miracles were 
wrought in Jerusalem, in Capernaum, and 
in other places which are expressly specifi¬ 
ed ; and those of the apostles in places hun¬ 
dreds of miles apart. Thus in the book of 
Acts we read of miracles wrought in vari¬ 
ous towns and cities of Judea ; the J^esser 
Asia ; Greece, including Macedonia ; and in 



20 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


the Grecian Islands ; thus exposed to the 
scrutiny of thousands who hated Christiani¬ 
ty, how can we account for their silence in 
not proving imposture, but, from the fact, 
they knew they could not prove it? Let us 
imagine a case something similar to that 
in which we are now viewing the Lord and 
his apostles, 

4. Suppose that some ancient prophecies 
had led our countrymen to expect that some 
one should arise who should prove their great¬ 
est benefactor; that about the appointed time, 
a person did appear professing to be the man 
they expected ; that he had spent a few years 
teaching, and professing to work miracles ; 
but that the government and people disliking 
him, he had been put to death. Suppose af¬ 
ter this that some of his disciples had travel¬ 
led through the British islands, professing al¬ 
so to work miracles, and that they had also 
gone through France, Spain, Italy and Ger¬ 
many, making the same professions. Sup¬ 
pose that then some of these persons were to 
write an account of the life of their founder;, 
and of the travels of his disciples, in which 
they ascribed miracles to them. If they said 
all these miracles were wrought in some ob¬ 
scure village in the highlands of Scotland, 
or in a valley among the Alps, the reader 
might suspect the truth of the account; but 
if, instead of tlds, they stated that these mir¬ 
acles were wrought in the most public places, 
before even angry enemies, who wished to 
prove them false, and could not, must not the 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


21 


reader then allaw them to be miracles of a 
truth. Suppose it were stated that he had 
restored to life the daughter of the lord may¬ 
or of London; that he had raised from the 
edge of the grave the son of the governor of 
Dover castle; that in different churches in 
Bristol he had healed several diseased per¬ 
sons; that going into Canterbury he had met 
a funeral, and called the dead out of the cof¬ 
fin; that at Islington, in the sight of friends 
& enemies, he had ordered another dead man 
out of the grave; that upon this the privy 
council had met, and determined that it were 
needful to destroy him. and that even the 
king himself had said, “ It is expedient that 
one man should die for the people.” Sup¬ 
pose further, that the history stated, that, 
when officers were sent to apprehend him, 
struck by an invisible power, they went back¬ 
ward, and fell to the ground, that one of 
them having his ear cut off, their prisoner 
had touched his ear and healed him. Sup¬ 
pose further, that it were stated that he had 
suffered on Tower-bill; and that when he 
suffered, all nature seemed convulsed; that 
darkness at noon covered London; that vari¬ 
ous graves were opened; that rocks rent; 
and that the walls of St. Paul’s church were 
split in two from the top to the bottom. Sup¬ 
pose further, that the history stated, that this 
man had said he should rise from the dead; &. 
that the government sealed up his tomb, and 
set sixty soldiers to watch it, but that never¬ 
theless he had risen; that his enemies said 




22 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


his disciples had stolen his body; that in a few 
days one of those disciples healed a cripple, 
who had sat as a beggar for years at the gates 
of St. Paul’s cathedral; and that he, and 
some fellow-disciples, for preaching in their 
master’s name, were brought before the privy 
council; that these men, undaunted, charged 
the king and council, with having murdered 
their master, and declared to them, that, in¬ 
stead of the account published by them, being 
true, that his body was stolen, God had rais¬ 
ed him from the dead; that the council, in¬ 
stead of charging them with falsehood and 
imposture, had tamely sunk under thecharge 
exhibited against themselves, and let these 
men go; suppose that the object of these men 
were such, that it would overthrow the whole 
ecclesiastical eatablishment; and would de¬ 
prive those who were supported by it of their 
influence, wealth, and power; and that they 
were rapidly proselyting multitudes; suppose 
that the government hated these men; and 
occasionally put one and another of them to 
death, hut never tried to disapprove honora¬ 
bly and openly the truth of their history; 
would not this silence of theirs be almost 
proof enough that the history were true? 
Would not every reasonable man say, If itbe 
false, why do they not show it to be so? it 
may be easily done. Was that child raised 
from death in London? and that from the bed 
of death at Dover? Was the man raised at 
Islington? Did they examine into this be¬ 
fore the privy council? if they did, and found 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 2$ 

it false, why do not they say so, instead of let¬ 
ting those men proselyte their thousands? 

Apply this mode of reasoning to the case 
of our Lord and his apostles. If the ac¬ 
counts of their miracles were not true, why 
did not their enemies prove their statements 
false? His friends, passing over many other 
instances, record that he healed persons in va¬ 
rious synagogues; that at Capernaum he 
raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, 
a ruler of the synagogue; and there restor¬ 
ed from the edge of the grave the servant of 
a centurion; that entering Nain he raised to 
life a dead man whose funeral he met; that 
he fed five thousand men at one time, and 
four thousand at another, with a few loaves 
and small fishes; that at the pool of Bethes- 
da in Jerusalem, he raised to health a man 
diseased thirty-eight years; and cured in the 
same city one that was born blind; that in 
the neighboring village of Bethany, he rais* 
ed Lazarus from the grave; that the Jews 
called a council, and the high-priest spoke of 
it as expedient, innocent as he was, to put 
him to death; that when officers went to ap¬ 
prehend him at his word they went back 
wards and fell to the ground; that when ap 
prehended he healed the servant whose eai 
Peter cut off; that when he was crucified 
darkness covered the land; that the rocks 
rent; that the graves opened; that the dead 
arose; and that the vail of that boasted and 
valued temple, which his enemies had under 
their own keeping, was rent in twain I ho 


£4 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


second history adds, that after his resurrec¬ 
tion, his powerful enemies spread a report 
that the disciples had stolen his body; that 
one of those disciples, having restored a man 
lame from his birth, was with his companion, 
apprehended, imprisoned, and brought before 
the supreme council; that there the disciples 
charged the council with having murdered 
the Lord of life, and declared, that God had 
raised him from the dead; that they tamely 
in effect submitted to the charge, and thus, 
by their silence, in fact, confessed the false¬ 
hood of the report which they had invented. 
The history also states that speedily after 
this tilt) apostles were imprisoned; and were 
to be brought again before thecouncil and sen¬ 
ate of Israel the next morning, but that when 
the morning came the officers found the pris¬ 
on fast and the keepers watching the doors, 
but all the apostles gone; that they found 
them in the temple teaching the people; and 
that when the chief priests and other princi¬ 
ple men among the Jews heard these things 
they doubted what would be the issue. Chris¬ 
tianity was so opposed to the corrupt prac¬ 
tices of the Jewish priests and rulers, that 
their wealth, their honor, and their influence 
were at stake; why then, except because they 
could not, did they not prove these state¬ 
ments false? and hand that proof down to 
their posterity? Why did they not say and 
prove, Your history is false; your Jesus nev¬ 
er cured any person in our synagogues; he 
raised no daughter of Jairus; he cured n» 


OF CHRISTIANITY - . 


25 


centurion’s servant at Capernaum; he raised 
no widow’s son at the entrance of Nain; he 
never fed thousands with a few loaves and 
fishes; he cured no diseased man at the pool 
of Bethesda; nor did he in Jerusalem give 
sight to a man horn blind; nor did the Phar¬ 
isees hold any consultation on such a case; 
he did not raise Lazarus at Bethany; we 
held no council on the subject; nor did Cuia- 
phas utter any sentiment so opposed to our 
law and his office, as that an innocent man 
might be put to death for public good. It is 
true, your Jesus was put to death, but the 
officers sent to apprehend him did not in a 
body go backwards and fall to the ground 
when, after their declaration that they sought 
Jesus of Nazareth, he said, “I am he;” he 
did not heal the ear of the high-priest’s ser¬ 
vant nor did darkness cover the land when 
he was crucified; nor did the rocks rend; 
nor was the vail of the temple rent in twain; 
nor did Peter restore a lame beggar at the 
gale of the temple; nordid thedisciplcs charge 
us with having murdered him, and we si¬ 
lently submit to the charge; nor did they de¬ 
clare to us that God had raised him, and our 
silence allow the fact; nor did we imprison 
the disciples, and our officers the next morn¬ 
ing find the keepers watching an empty pris¬ 
on, and the prisoners they thought they were 
guarding preaching in the temple; your his¬ 
tory is false. Had they tried to give such an 
answer as this, they had come to the point; 
they had acted like men: but they did not 


26 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


give it; and the only rational supposition is, 
because they could not. Had the persons re¬ 
ferred to in these statements been obscure in¬ 
dividuals their silence would have been inex¬ 
plicable on any ground except their inability 
to offer a reply; but let it never be forgotten 
that in the case before us the governors of 
the Jewish nation were partly the actors. 
They hated the apostles, they pursued some 
of them to death; thus they evinced their 
wish to crush the rising religion; but they 
stood not forward and boldly maintained 
these statements are false. They evidently 
dared not bring the matter to this issue. 

5. Proof to the authenticity and divinity 
of the gospel may be also adduced from the 
testimony of its enemies. The Jews, instead 
of disproving the Saviour’s miracles, charged 
him with learning magical arts in Egypt. In 
the Gemara it is said, “ Did not the son of 
Stada” (a name they applied to Jesus) “ bring 
magical arts out of Egypt in a cutting in his 
flesh?”* In the Jerusalem Talmud it is 
said, that a child who had swallowed poison 
was healed when a man came and pronounced 
some words in the name of Jesus; but that a 
rabbi, his grandfather, preferred his dying to 
his being thus healed. Elsewhere in Jewish 
writings it is said, that by virtue of the name 
Shem Hamephorash, which he stole out of 
the temple, he raised the dead, and walked 
upon the waters, and cured the lame, and 
cleansed the lepers.f 

* Lardncr’s Jewish Testimonies, cap. 5. 

t Raynondi Ptigo Fidei, p. £90. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


n 

Tertullian appeals to the Jews themselves 
on their not denying the miracles of Christ; 
an appeal which it would have been madness 
to make if he knew that the fact of the case 
was exactly contrary. “ Ye do not, 55 says he, 
“disallow the mighty works done by Christ, 
for you yourselves said it was not for his works 
that ye stoned him, but because he did these 
things on the sabbath-day. 55 

The testimonies of heathens are more 
numerous. Suetonius, writing of Nero, 
whose reign ended in a. d. 68, says, “ The 
Christians were punished, a sort of men of a 
new and magical superstition. 55 Celsus, a 
heathen philosopher, and bitter enemy to 
the gospel, wrote a book against Christianity 
in the second century. He wrote early, as 
he says, “ It is but a few years since he” 
(Jesus) “delivered this doctrine, who is now 
reckoned by the Christians to be the Son of 
God. Respecting his testimony, Bryant 
says, 

“ Many of the principal passages in the 
evangelists and apostles, as well as in the 
Old Testament, are either quoted, or alluded 
to by him. He speaks of Moses and the cre¬ 
ation; and refers often to the prophets. He 
speaks also of Christ and his incarnation; 
and of his being born of a virgin; and men¬ 
tions his flight into Egypt. He acknowledg¬ 
es that his disciples looked upon him as a di¬ 
vine personage, and accordingly worshipped 
him as the Son of God. He alludes frequent¬ 
ly to the Holy Spirit; and mentions God un- 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


28 

der the title of the Most High; and speaks 
collectively of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, as transmitted by the evangelists. He 
does not deny the miracles of Christ nor of 
his apostles; but attributes them to magic. 
Lastly, the crucifixion of our Saviour, his 
death, resurrection, and his appearing to his 
disciples afterwards, together with the dark¬ 
ness, and earthquake, at his decease, are 
mentioned by him. It is true, be continually 
objects and disbelieves. But those very ob¬ 
jections prove, that these histories and doc¬ 
trines existed, and must necessarily have 
been antecedent to his cavils, which is all that 
we want to know from him.” 4 

Doddridge, referring to the testimony of 
Celsus, observes, that an enumeration of the 
particulars in the life of Christ referred to by 
him, would almostform an abridgement of the 
evangelists’ history. Among other facts, 
Celsus refers to the following: he says, " that 
Jesus, who was represented as the Word of 
God, and who w r as the author of the Christian 
name, and also called himself the Son of God, 
was a man of Nazareth; that he was the re¬ 
puted son of a carpenter; that when be was 
born a star appeared in the east to certain 
magi, who came to adore him; the conse¬ 
quence of which was the slaughter of the in¬ 
fants by Herod.” He calls Christ himself a 
carpenter, and reproaches his mean life, and 
his gathering up ten or twelve poor men, pub- 

* ?eo Bryant on the authenticity of scripture, with ref¬ 
erences to the passages quoted from Celsus. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


29 


licans and men that used the sea. He grants 
that Christ wrought miracles, and particular¬ 
ly that he cured some sick people, raised some 
that were dead, and multiplied some loaves; 
but speaks of others doing the like. He al¬ 
so expressly mentions his curing the lame 
and the blind, and his raising the dead, is 
mentioned a second time. He speaks of Je¬ 
sus as betrayed by his disciples and forsaken, 
as ignominiously bound, as scourged, as 
crowned with thorns, with a reed in his hand, 
and arrayed in a scarlet robe, and as con¬ 
demned; as having gall given him to drink 
when he was led away to punishment; as 
shamefully treated in the sight of the world; 
as distended on thecross. Hederides Christ 
for not exerting his divinity to punish those 
outrages; as taking no vengeance on his en¬ 
emies; as incapable to deliver himself, and 
not delivered by his Father in his extremi¬ 
ty. He also insults Jesus for suffering, and 
yet praying, O Father, if it be possible let 
this cup pass away. After mentioning ma¬ 
ny other circumstances of the evangelic his¬ 
tory to which this early opponent of the gos¬ 
pel refers, Doddridge adds, “ Upon the whole 
there are in Celsus about eighty quotations 
from the books of the New Testament, or 
references to them, of which Origen has 
taken notice. And whilst he argues from 
them, sometimes in a very perverse and ma¬ 
licious manner, he still takes it for granted, 
as the foundation of his argument, that what¬ 
ever absurdities could be fastened upon any 


30 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


words or actions of Christ recorded in the 
evangelists, it would be a valid objection 
against Christianity; thereby, in effect,assur¬ 
ing us not only that such a book did really 
exist, but that it was universally received by 
Christians in those times as credible and 
divine.”* 

His attributing our Lord’s miracles to 
magic, must be more minutely noticed. In 
one place he says, that Jesus served in Egypt, 
“ and having there learned some charms, 
such as the Egyptians are fond of, he return¬ 
ed home; and then valuing himself upon 
those charms (powers,) he setup himself for 
a god. ” Elsewhere he represents that Chris¬ 
tians assigned as one reason for their believ¬ 
ing that Christ was “ the Son of God, because 
he cured the halt and the blind;” nor does he 
deny the fact. 

Origen says, “ Celsus, well knowing what 
great works may be alledged to have been 
done by Jesus, pretends to grant that the 
things related of him are true, such as heal¬ 
ing diseases, raising the dead, feeding mul¬ 
titudes with a few loaves, of which, likewise, 
large fragments were left, and whatever oth¬ 
er things the disciples, who, as he thinks,de- 
lighted in strange things, have written; and 
then adds, ‘Well, then, let us grant that all 
these things were done by you.” After this 
he mentions the tricks of some impostors, and 
asks, “ Because they do such things must we 
therefore esteem them to be God’s sons ? or 

* Doddridge in Lardner, article Celsus. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


31 


must we not rather say that these are artifi¬ 
ces of wicked and miserable men?” Celsus 
here allows that the works ascribed to Christ 
were as apparently done by him as the tricks 
of impostors are done by them. He thus 
admits the accounts of the Lord’s miracles; 
the question therefore is, could magical arts 
heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and life 
to the dead? or was it possible for miracles 
so publicly wrought, to be the tricks of im¬ 
postors? On this subject Origen observes, 
“ Celsus not being able directly to deny the 
great works which Jesus is recorded to have 
done, asperses them, and calls them juggling 
tricks.”*—“ You see that Celsus in a manner 
allows that there is such a thing ns magic; 
though possibly he is the same who wrote 
several books against magic.”—Alluding to 
the Christians, Celsus says, they seem to pre¬ 
vail by the name and invocation of certain 
demons, f 

Porphyry, another virulent writer against 
Christianity, speaks of those as foolish who 
followed Jesus at his call. He is charged 
with representing the apostles as deceivers, 
but appears to have been ready to allow that 
they wrought signs, but pleads that others 
had done so by magical arts. Indeed, the 
imputation that the miracles of the Lord and 
his apostles were wrought by magic, appears 
to have been a common excuse for rejecting 
the divine religion to which they afforded 

* Lardner’s Testimonies, article Celsus. 

t Ibid. Porphyry. 


.32 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


such overwhelming evidence; and this was a 
refuge to which unbelief could flee to shroud 
the unhappy soul in continued darkness. 
Arnobius, a later Christian apologist, refers 
to this subject, and indignantly exclaims, 
<c Were these works therefore the delusions 
of demons, and the tricks of magic arts? 
Are you able to point to any one, to show 
from all magicians, one who ever in the 
course of ages did any thing approaching 
by the thousandth part to the works of 
Christ?” 

Julian the apostate was born in the year 
331, and died in 363. He is another of those 
bitter enemies of the gospel, who have yet 
allowed the reality of the miracles which 
confirm its truth. He was brought up as a 
Christian, and was ordained reader in the 
church at Nicodemia. He had thus an oppor¬ 
tunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted 
with the Christian system. He afterwards 
embraced paganism, and manifested by per¬ 
secution, and in other ways, his utter hatred 
of Christianity. His situation in life, as head 
of the Roman empire, gave him the most 
favorable opportunity, if any imposition had 
been practiced in the establishment of Chris¬ 
tianity, for detecting the whole, and his ha¬ 
tred to the Christians and their religion, would 
doubtless have led him to do so; yet he did 
not. He wrote against Christianity. He 
patronized the Jews; and attempted to re¬ 
build their temple, probably with the design 
of proving false the Saviour’s prophecy, that 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


33 


Jerusalem should be trodden down of the 
Gentiles, Sic. A heathen writer states, that 
this attempt was defeated by balls of fire, 
which, bursting out from the foundations, 
scorched and burnt the workmen. Referring 
to the Lord Jesus, he writes, “ Jesus, whom 
you celebrate, was one of Cesar’s subjects. 
—After he was born what good did he do to 
his relations?—Jesus who rebuked the winds, 
and walked on the sea , and cast out demons , 
and, as you will have it, made the heaven 
and earth (though none of his disciples pre¬ 
sumed to say this of him except John only, 
nor he clearly and distinctly; however, let it 
be allowed that he said so) could not order 
his designs so as to save his friends and re¬ 
lations .”— u Jesus having persuaded a few 
among you, and those the worst of men, has 
now been celebrated about three hundred 
years, having done nothing in his life time 
worthy of remembrance; unless any one 
thinks it a mighty matter to heal lame and 
blind people, and exercise demoniacs in the 
villages of Bethsaida and Bethany.” Julian, 
in different passages, further acknowledges 
the genuineness and authority of many books 
of the New Testament; the writings of Paul, 
the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, all of which he mentions by name. He 
acknowledges that these books contain the 
doctrines of Christ’s apostles. He refers to 
the first three gospels as written before the 
martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and mentions 
John as writing after their death; he acknowl- 
3 



34 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


edges the early and rapid progress of Chris¬ 
tianity, and as maybe observed, he mentions 
Jesus as having been celebrated for about 
three hundred years. He charges the Chris¬ 
tians with having departed from the instruc¬ 
tions of the apostles. “ You are so unhappy 
as not to adhere to the things delivered to you 
by the apostles.—Jesus no where directed you 
to do such things, nor yet Paul.” He ex¬ 
pressly mentions the conversion of Cornelius 
and Sergius Paulus. In an edict to Christians, 
lie speaks of them as those who worshipped 
Jesus, and esteemed him God the Word.* 
Referring to the apostle Paul, he says, that he 
exceeded every way all the cheats and jug¬ 
glers, which ever were.t 

6. Observe now, what powerful attestation 
these testimonies of heathen writers furnish 
to the truth of the Christian miracles. Had 
the Jews been able to furnish evidence that 
the miracles ascribed to Jesus and his apos¬ 
tles were not wrought, these writers would 
gladly have seized it, and handed it down to 
posterity. They might then have triumphed 
over Christians, as wicked impostors, who 
were attempting to establish even religion by 
notorious falsehoods; but, instead of that, 
they ascribe these wonders to magical arts. 
Celsus, who probably had seen some of the 
disciples of the apostles, grants the miracles. 
Porphyry does not deny them. Julian, with 
the power and wealth of the Roman Empire 

* Lardner’s Jewish and Heathen Test. art. Julian. 

f Apud Cyril Alex. b. iii. p. 100. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


35 


at his command, to hunt out imposture if 
there were any, while he unfairly represents 
the character of Jesus, allows that he did 
works, which cannot be done by human 
power, and which common sense tells us, 
cannot be effected by magical arts. Let the 
enlightened philosophers, as they are pleased 
to term themselves, of modern times, consider 
the testimonies of their friends, Julian and 
Celsus. Let them inform us how Jesus, if 
not divine, rebuked the winds, walked on the 
waves, cured demoniacs, restored sight to the 
blind, and vigor to the lame, and thus 
wrought the wonders which Julian acknowl¬ 
edges. Let them consider that Celsus too, 
that most bitter enemy of the gospel, who 
lived just after the time when it was first 
published to the world, does not disprove the 
miracles of its first preachers. Had he been 
able to prove these but the pretences of .im¬ 
postors, would he not have done so? He 
says, indeed, “ l could say many things con¬ 
cerning the affairs of Jesus, and those too 
different from those written by the disciples 
of Jesus, but I purposely omit them.” But 
would he have declined bringing forward 
these different statements if he could have 
produced any having the least plausibility 
or appearance of truth? Would the true 
heir to an estate, of which an impostor 
sought to deprive him, neglect the downright 
proof that his opponent was an impostor, 
and quibble about trifles? Would Celsus, 
the bitter opponent of Christianity, and zeal- 




36 


THE DIVIDE ORIGIN 


ous defender of Paganism, if he could havo 
proved miracles false, have neglected bringing 
forward that proof? One proof of this kind 
would have done more to check Christianity 
than the whole volume which he wrote 
against it. The miracles of the apostles 
doubtless, under God, contributed to make 
vast numbers their converts; how could man 
resist such evidence as that offered to his 
senses, when the blind saw, and the tongue 
of the deaf sang, when the lame leaped for 
joy, and diseases and death fled at a word! 
Had Celsus proved these miracles imposition, 
he had done every thing he could desire; but 
he could not do this, and therefore attributed 
them to magical powers. Our modern phi¬ 
losophers disbelieve, and deny the efficacy of 
magic. How then can they free themselves 
from the dilemma into which their friend 
Celsus has brought them? If they deny that 
Jesus and his apostles wrought miracles, let 
them remember that they maintain what none 
but infidels, those enlightened sons of reason, 
can believe; what all besides must think 
truly absurd; that the most inveterate ene¬ 
mies of Christianity, when laboring for its 
subversion, and destroying its professors, by 
their unbroken silence gave their sanction to 
the publication of a long tissue of falsehoods 
by which it was supported; or by ascribing 
miracles to magical arts, united with the 
suffering friends of the gospel in its support; 
that the persecutor and the martyr joined in 
the common deception, the first allowing, 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


37 


the last affirming the miracles of Jesus. 
They may say Celsus was deceived; and are 
they nearly seventeen hundred years after¬ 
wards to undeceive him? They may assert 
the same of Julian; but if he, an apostate 
Christian, acquainted with all the secrets of 
Christianity, and raised to be emperor of the 
world, could detect no imposture, nor dis¬ 
prove one miracle, are they, fifteen hun¬ 
dred years afterwards, to deny what he ac¬ 
knowledged? If these talented enemies 
of the gospel, with the best means of inves¬ 
tigation, so near the rise of the Christian re¬ 
ligion, were compelled to allow the truth of 
its miracles, can they, eighteen hundred 
years afterwards, be supposed to gain so 
much better a knowledge of what then oc¬ 
curred as to prove that false which their pre¬ 
decessors in unbelief were obliged to grant, 
and to pass over as impregnable to all their 
attacks? The supposition is absurd. 

On reviewing this subject, it may lead us 
to observe how admirable is the wisdom of 
God in thus ordaining that the bitterest ene¬ 
mies of Christianity should be compelled to 
appear as witnesses in its behalf; and how 
vain are the efforts of its enemies, when those 
volumes, which, in one age they wrote to 
prove it false, in another, become invaluable 
evidences of its truth! Thus are the weapons 
of its enemies turned against themselves, 
and their swords pierce no bosoms but their 
own. This is evidently the case, while the 
writings of the early opposers of the gospel 


33 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


unite with those of its friends to support 
what they attempted to destroy. All their 
attacks have tended to stamp their cause and 
themselves with shame. For about eighteen 
hundred years have the powers of hell united 
to destroy Christianity; and for about eight¬ 
een hundred years have its friends smiled at 
their feeble efforts, or rode securely through 
the storms their malice has raised. They 
have written against it, and their writings 
now appear in its support; they have mar¬ 
tyred myriads of its friends, and rendered 
those martyred myriads witnesses to its 
truth. 

7. The miracles of the Lord Jesus and his 
apostles are thus attested by the silence of 
their enemies, who had every advantage for 
disproving them, if they had not incontrovert- 
ibly been wrought. They receive additional 
confirmation from the testimonies of those 
enemies, who attribute them to magical art, or 
the use of a stolen name. They are also 
confirmed by the testimony of his suffering 
friends. It is true, the testimony of profes¬ 
sed friends is thought suspicious, but the tes¬ 
timony of the early friends of the gospel is of 
a peculiar nature. They were its enemies, 
bigoted Jews or superstitious heathens, till 
what they saw and heard, under the divine 
blessing, changed them into friends. No 
testimony can be stronger than that of a man 
once strongly opposed to any cause, but who, 
overcome by evidence, becomes the support¬ 
er of what he once opposed, and hazards his 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


89 


comfort, his life, his all, through the force of 
that conviction. This conviction did not 
arise from any prejudice the primitive Chris¬ 
tians entertained in favor of those who first 
propagated religion, hut from the wonderful 
facts which they saw performed. The mira¬ 
cles which our Lord and his apostles wrought 
gained them credit.* Besides the particulars 
recorded in the books of the New Testament, 
we have the express testimony of various 
early Christians and martyrs to the miracles 
of the Lord and his apostles. In an epistle 
written in the first century, and ascribed to 
Barnabas, the companion of Paul, besides 
reference to the sufferings of Christ, his 
miracles are generally, but plainly, referred 
to in the following words ; “ Finally, teach¬ 
ing the people of Israel, and doing many won¬ 
ders and signs among them, he preached to 
them, and showed the exceeding great love 
which he bore towards them.” Clement, a 
hearer of St Paul, says, “The apostles have 
preached to us from our Lord Jesus Christ 
from God, for having received their command, 
and being thoroughly assured by the resurrec¬ 
tion of our Lord Jesus Christ, they went a- 
broad publishing that the kingdom of God was 
at hand.f Polycarp, adisciple of St. John and 
a martyr, recognises the resurrection and as¬ 
cension of Christ. Irenaeus, another early 
Christian writer, says, that he had heard from 

* John H. 11. iii.2. iv. 53. ix. 16. xi. 45. xx. 20, Si,See- 
&-«. 

| Ep. Barn. Ep. Clom. Rom. 


40 


THE DIVIH E ORIGIN 


Polycarp “ what ho had received from eye¬ 
witnesses concerning the Lord, both concern¬ 
ing his miracles and his doctrine.”* Ignatius, 
the contemporary of Polycarp, who also suf¬ 
fered martyrdom, is circumstantial on the res¬ 
urrection of Jesus. Quadratus, of the same 
age, has left the following noble testimony: 
“ The works of our Savior were always 
conspicuous, for they were real; both they 
that were healed and they that were raised 
from the dead; who were seen, not. only 
when they were healed or raised, but for a 
long time afterwards; not only whilst he 
dwelt on this earth, but also after his depart¬ 
ure, and for a good while after it, insomuch 
that some of them have reached to our 
times.”t About thirty years after Quadra- 
tus, Justin Martyr attested our Lord’s works 
in the following passage: “ He healed those 
who had been blind, and deaf, and lame, 
from their birth, causing by his word, one 
to leap, another to hear, and a third to see; 
and by raising the dead and making them to 
live, he induced, by his works, the men of 
that age to know him.It is true, some of 
these writers were not actually eve-witness¬ 
es ofthe miracles they mention, though oth¬ 
ers were; but they lived so early, that they 
had the best opportunity for investigating 
the truth of these miraculous accounts, and 
so full was their conviction, that several of 

* lien. ad. Flor. np. Euseb. I. 5. c. 2Q. 

f Ap Eweeb. H. E. 1. 4. c. 3. 

| Just. Dial, cum Tryph. p. 2S8. Ed. Thirl. 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


41 


them, for the Bake of the gospel, suffered mar¬ 
tyrdom. 

We may further observe, that multitudes 
of the early Christians must have been eye¬ 
witnesses of the miracles, that confirmed 
the divine origin of the religion for which 
they died. Many of them were Jewish be¬ 
lievers, and lived where Jesus taught; oth¬ 
ers were inhabitants of different places 
where miracles were wrought, which are 
mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, or 
referred to in the Epistles. These must 
have known whether the accounts contain¬ 
ed in the Gospels and the Acts were true or 
false, and whether miracles alluded to in the 
Epistles written to themselves were wrought 
or not; but so fully were they convinced of 
the truth of these facts, that they received as 
divine the books that record them; held them 
in the highest estimation; and in many in¬ 
stances, actually suffered persecution and 
death, rather than renounce the religion 
grounded on what they themselves had wit¬ 
nessed. The accounts of miracles in the 
gospels, must, if false, have been open to im¬ 
mediate detection, and still less possibility 
was there, that the epistles to particular 
churches should contain undetected false¬ 
hoods on the subject of miracles. The apos¬ 
tle Paul expressly refers to his miracles, and 
tells those to whom he wrote, that he had 
wrought them among themselves. Had he 
not actually done so, this would have been 
such a palpable falsehood, and so easily de- 


4a 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


tected, that no man in his senses could have 
ventured such an assertion. He also refers 
to a power possessed by some among his con¬ 
verts of working miracles, which if they had 
not possessed such a power would have been 
as absurd as for a modern advocate of the 
gospel seriously to have told the infidel Paine 
that to himself had been communicated, the 
power of raising the dead in support of Chris¬ 
tianity.* 

These things furnish convincing proof 
that the early Christians must have known, 
that the miracles recorded in the New Tes- 
ment were really wrought, and that many of 
them were eye-witnesses of these wonderful 
facts, or had seen the persons on whom they 
were performed; for miracles were their 
boast, and well indeed might they be so.— 
And the fact of their having in various pla¬ 
ces been witnesses of them, makes the death 
of the early Christian martyrs such a power¬ 
ful confirmation of the truth of Christianity. 
As their attention was first gained, and their 
reason convinced by the miracles they saw, 
they really suffered as witnesses to the truth 
of those facts, not merely to the belief in the 
opinion they grounded upon them. To il¬ 
lustrate this further: suppose persecution 
were now raging, and that multitudes of 
Christians were seized and burnt for their 
religion, in Smithfield, the place where po¬ 
pish cruelty once shed the blood of so many 
martyrs. The death of these persons would 

* 9 Cor. xii. 12. Gal ili. 5.1 Cor. xii. 9, 10, &c. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


43 


not prove the truth of Christianity, hut it 
would decisively prove, that they believed 
it true. They would die witnesses to that 
belief. But if a multitude of persons who had 
become Christians, after seeing the diseased 
restored to health, and the dead to life, were 
martyred for religion, they would then die 
witnesses to these facts, as well as martyrs 
to the belief which sprung from them. And 
if the facts were of a nature which prevented 
the possibility of deception, the death of a 
number of martyrs, for a belief grounded on 
them, would incontestably prove their truth. 
Now, in consequence of a belief grounded 
on the miracles of the Lord and his apostles, 
multitudes endured martyrdom, and these 
not people of only one village, or one town, 
or one city, or one nation, but multitudes in 
countries far remote from each other; and 
these not merely the hardy and the brave, 
but the timid and the weak. Even women, 
forgetting their natural timidity, were bold 
in suffering for the name of Jesus. Christi- 
anity produced sufferers of a new descrip¬ 
tion. Before its introduction, the courage¬ 
ous warrior or the hardened villain were 
the persons that looked on death with 
careless unconcern; but under the influ¬ 
ence of the gospel, the fearful and the tender 
assumed a firmness exceeding that of the 
hardened villain, or the courageous warrior. 
With the gentle meekness of the lamb was 
united the undaunted courage of the lion.— 
The young and immature, as well as the 


44 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


more aged and robust, became sufferers for 
the sake of the gospel. Nor was belief in 
the gospel confined to the mean and illiterate, 
but miracles, with overwhelming evidence, 
convinced heathen philosophers and Jewish 
priests, some of whom were converts and 
martyrs. In the persecution at Rome under 
Nero, according to the testimony of 
Tacitus, a heathen historian, many Chris¬ 
tians suffered martyrdom in various torment¬ 
ing and dreadful forms. At this period the 
apostles Peter and Paul suffered death. Some 
of their fellow-sufferers must have been wit¬ 
nesses of the miracles which wrought so 
powerfully on many minds; and the martyrs, 
in this early persecution, suffered not for a 
belief handed down to them by others, but 
for what they had learned from the very first 
preachers of the gospel; and which had been 
confirmed by the miracles those preachers 
wrought. The apostle John lived till Tra¬ 
jan’s reign, and among the eminent persons, 
who had been conversant with the apostles, 
and who suffered subsequent to the first per¬ 
secution, may be mentioned Ignatius, pastor 
of the church at Antioch, who, in Trajan’s 
reign, was exposed to wild beasts at Rome; 
and Polycarp, who had been a disciple of 
John, and who was burnt in the reign of 
Marcus Antoninus. As we know that these 
survived, and suffered long after the first per¬ 
secution of the Christians, it is probable oth¬ 
ers might; that, for instance, among tho 
Bithynian martyrs, whom the philosophic 


OF CHRISTIANITY, 


45 


Pliny murdered, might be many who had 
witnessed the miracles of the immediate dis¬ 
ciples of the Lord; but however that be, it 
must be evident, to any candid person, that 
they who suffered death during the apostol¬ 
ic age, and even in the same persecution 
with some of the apostles, must have been 
intimately acquainted with their mighty 
works; and by preferring death to a renun¬ 
ciation of the religion these confirmed, they 
became witnesses of their truth. Let it be 
remembered also, that according to the tes¬ 
timony of heathen historians, not one or two 
only at that time braved death, but multi¬ 
tudes: thousands sacrificed all that was dear 
to them, and suffered such torments, that 
death, by the stroke of an axe, would have 
been a favor. Let it also be considered, that 
during that period, when there was the best 
possible opportunity for investigating the 
truth of the miracles ascribed to the Lord 
and his apostles, multitudes were so con¬ 
vinced of their truth, that they embraced the 
religion for which they suffered,with no pros¬ 
pect but that of suffering. Little hope had 
they for this world; their hopes must have 
been fixed upon a better. The worldly en¬ 
couragement offered them for embracing the 
gospel, was pains and penalties, shame and 
exile, imprisonment and death. Yet with 
this dark scene before them, did some, who 
perhaps till then had enjoyed the sunshine 
of continued prosperity, bid farewell to all 
the pleasures of life, to meet its roughest 


46 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


storms, face its dangers, and sink into the 
grave beneath them: such as Dionysius the 
Areopagite; Joseph of Arimathea, a mem¬ 
ber of the Jewish sanhedrim; and Flavius 
Clemens, a Roman senator and consul; all 
of whom, it is said, gained the crown of mar¬ 
tyrdom—that crown, which, excepting the 
crown of glory, is the only one worth gain¬ 
ing. Yet while some were suffering, oth¬ 
ers were rushing forward to fill their places; 
and as fast as some yielded to the rage of per¬ 
secutors, others appeared to brave their fury. 
The progress of Christianity at that time, 
may remind us of the beast seen in vision 
by Daniel, in which as soon as one horn was 
broken, four more arose. 

To these remarks it may he added, that 
had the miracles of Christianity been ficti¬ 
cious, some early apostate, some secret or 
avowed enemy would have discovered the 
imposition. There is abundant evidence 
that in the first age many who for a while 
professed religion apostatized. Some sunk 
back into sin, others into sin and heathenism. 
Is it possible to believe, if there had been 
any imposture practised in the establishment 
of Christianity, that all these would have 
maintained unbroken silence, and no one 
have lifted his voice to denounce the cheat? 
Even Judas, who saw the Lord in his most 
private hours, who witnessed all that pass¬ 
ed behind the scene, as well as what took 
place before the public eye, was so far from 
detecting any imposture, that after his Lord 


47 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 

was condemned, through grief and remorse he 
hung himself: “ The repentance of this cov¬ 
etous disciple, dissipates every idea of a con¬ 
spiracy. The field purchased with the 
money, for the burial of strangers, became a 
monument of instruction for all the world.”* 
A conspiracy in which a few hundred con¬ 
spirators unite, has seldom, if ever, long re¬ 
mained undiscovered. Some one has betray¬ 
ed the whole, liutiftho miracles of the gos¬ 
pel were a forgery, here was a conspiracy to 
establish Christianity by imposture, carried 
on through many years, in almost every part 
of the then known world, in the midst of op¬ 
position and of suffering, for which thou¬ 
sands laid down their lives, which thousands 
more forsook, which multitudes wished to 
prove a cheat, and yet no timorous friend, 
no apostate enemy unveiled the delusion and 
exposed the imposture. They who can be 
credulous enough to believe this have no 
cause to insult Christians with charges of 
credulity. The simple peasant who is firm¬ 
ly persuaded that witches ride on broom- 
handles through the air is not more credu¬ 
lous than these vaunting sons of reason ! 

Thus then we see that the early enemies of 
Christianity, by not disproving the miracles 
ascribed to Jesus and his apostles, in fact, 
allowed their truth; ami that some of them 
actually confess this, by ascribing them to 
magic, or the use of a stolen name. We 
further see, that if the miracles related in the 


* Pluche. 


4S 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 

3Ne\v Testament, had been the tales of im¬ 
postors, the early Christians must have detec¬ 
ted the falsehood, but, instead of this, they 
made miracles their boast; and numbers who 
must have seen them performed, suffered 
death for their belief, which originated from 
them; while none that apostatized from 
Christianity fever betrayed any imposture as 
connected with the means used for its estab¬ 
lishment. Thus enemies and friends prove 
the truth of these wonderful facts, and these 
facts prove the truth of Christianity. 

While taking this view of the subject, we 
may observe an important distinction be¬ 
tween the early Christian martyrs, and those 
few enthusiasts, who may have had resolu¬ 
tion enough to meet death, rather than re¬ 
nounce some wild opinions. The last suf¬ 
fered for fancies, that perhaps sprung from 
heated imagination; the former died wit¬ 
nesses to facts which they had seen perform¬ 
ed. If some of the philosophises of the 
daj r should tell us that it is not Christianity 
only which has had its martyrs; we may 
reply, it is Christianity only that has had its 
myriads of willing martyrs; but if some wild 
sects should be pointed out that may boast a 
few, these were martyrs to fancies, not to 
facts. 

8. Another attestation to the divine origin 
of Christianity, and to the miracles which 
proved its divinity, springs from its rapid 
diffusion through the world. Both Christian 
and heathen writers unite in offering testi- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


49 


niony to the rapid progress of the gospel. 
Tacitus bears witness to this fact, and to the 
sufferings of the disciples of the Saviour. He 
says, that Nero, to free himself from the 
charge of having set fire to Rome, imputed 
that crime to the Christians. Headds, “They 
had their denomination from Christus, who 
in the reign of Tiberius, was put to death as 
a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate. 
This pernicious superstition, checked for the 
present, again broke out, and spread not on¬ 
ly over Judea, the source of the evil, but 
through the city also,(Rome,) whither from 
all quarters all things vile and shameful flow 
and are practised. At first they were ap¬ 
prehended who confessed themselves of that 
sect. Afterwards a great multitude discov¬ 
ered by them, all of whom were condemned, 
not so much for the crime of burning the city 
as for their enmity to mankind. Their exe¬ 
cutions were so contrived as to expose them 
to derision and contempt. Some were cov¬ 
ered over with the skins of wild beasts and 
torn to pieces by dogs; some were crucified; 
others, with combustible materials, were set 
up as lights in the night time, and thus burn¬ 
ed. Nero made use of his own gardens as a 
theatre on this occasion, and also exhibited 
the diversions of the circus, sometimes stand¬ 
ing in the crowd as aspectator, in the habit 
of a charioteer, at other times driving a 
chariot himself, till at length these men, 
though really criminal, and deserving exem¬ 
plary punishment, began to be commiserated 
4 





50 THE DIVIDE ORIGIN 

as people who were destroyed, not out of a 
regard to the public welfare, but only to 
gratify the cruelty of one man.”* 

This was but about thirty-four years after 
the ascension of the Lord, yet so rapid had 
been the progress of the gospel, that it had 
reached Rome, and there made a great mul¬ 
titude of converts, who preferred their reli¬ 
gion to their lives. By what diabolical art 
it was eoected, that besides the other ways 
of torturing, some of them served as lights 
in the streets by night, he does not inform 
us. Some suppose that they were covered 
with a pitched garment called the tunica mo- 
lesta, which, being set on fire, would contin¬ 
ue burning. The tunica molesta was one 
of the most dreadful kinds of punishment; 
it was u made like a sack of paper or coarse 
linen cloth, and having been besmeared 
within and without with pitch, wax, rosin, 
sulphur, and such like combustible materials, 
or dipt all over in them, was put on the per¬ 
son for whom it was appointed, and that he 
might be kept upright, the more to resemble 
a flaming torch, his chin was fastened to a 
stake fixed in the ground.” 

The learned Jacob Bryant says: “ I imag¬ 
ine from a passage in Juvenal, that they had 
deep holes made in different parts of the 
body, in which wax tapers were inserted.— 
In this manner they were exposed by day 
and by night in the streets; and when the 
tapers burned down to the quick, the pain 

* Taoit. Aon. 1. 15. «. 44. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


51 


in consequence of it must have been very 
great, and the spectacle which the poor suf¬ 
ferers exhibited must have been very horrid.” 
Thus, in various ways, did these innocent 
victims suffer, as the historian observes, by 
the most studied torments. What but a di¬ 
vine religion could have proceeded in the 
midst of such opposition ! What but a di¬ 
vine hand support multitudes of sufferers un¬ 
der such torments! What but infallible cer¬ 
tainty that they had not followed cunningly 
devised fables, could lead them to encounter 
such varied torments, when, by renouncing 
Christianity, they might have easily escaped 
them all! 

Pliny is another heathen writer who bears 
testimony to the rapid diffusion of Christian¬ 
ity. fie was the friend of the emperor Tra¬ 
jan, and was appointed president of Bithy- 
nia, about a. d. 106, when some who had 
seen the miracles of the apostles must have 
been still living. He found Bithynia, though 
1200 miles from Jerusalem, overrun with 
Christianity, and met with so many ready 
to suffer martyrdom, that at length, tired of 
executions, he wrote to Trajan for his di¬ 
rections. His whole letter deserves inser¬ 
tion : 

fC It is my constant custom, sir, to refer 
myself to you in all mattersconcerning which 
I have any doubt. For who can better di¬ 
rect me where I hesitate, or instruct me 
where I am ignorant ? I have never been 
present at any trials of Christians, so that I 


52 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


know not well what is the subject matter of 
punishment or of inquiry, or what strictness 
ought to be used in either. Nor have I been 
a little perplexed to determine whether any 
difference ought to be made upon account of 
ages, or whether the tender and the robust 
ought to be treated all alike; whether repen¬ 
tance should entitle to pardon, or whether it 
shall be of no advantage to him who has 
once been a Christian to have ceased being 
such; whether the name itself, although no 
crimes be detected, or whether only crimes 
belonging to the name ought to be punished. 
Concerning all these things I am in doubt. 

“ In the mean time I have taken this 
course with all who have been brought be¬ 
fore me, and have been accused as Christians. 
I have put the question to them, whether 
they were Christians? Upon their confess¬ 
ing to me that they were, I repeated the 
question a second and a third time, threat¬ 
ening also to punish them with death. Such 
as still persisted, I ordered to be led away; 
for it was no doubt with me, whatever it 
was they should have confessed, that con¬ 
tumacy and inflexible obstinacy ought to be 
punished. There were others of the same 
madness, whom, because they are Roman 
citizens, I have noted down to be sent to the 
city. 

“ In a short time the crime spreading itself 
even whilst under persecution, as is usual in 
such cases, diverse sort of people came in 
my way. An information was presented to 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


53 


me without mentioning the author, contain¬ 
ing the names of many persons who, upon 
examination, denied that they were Chris¬ 
tians, or had ever been so, who repeated af¬ 
ter me an invocation of the gods, and with 
wine and frankinsence sacrificed to your im¬ 
age, which, for that purpose, I had caused to 
be brought and set before them, together 
with the statues of the deities. Moreover, 
they reviled the name of Christ; none of 
which things, as is said, they who are really 
Christians, can, by any means, be compelled 
to do; these, therefore, I thought proper to 
discharge. 

“ Others were named by an informer, who 
at first confessed themselves Christians, and 
afterwards denied it. The rest said they 
had been Christians but had left them, some 
three years ago, some longer, and one or 
more above twenty years. They all wor¬ 
shipped your image, and the statues of the 
gods; they also reviled Christ. They af¬ 
firmed that the whole of their fault or error 
lay in this, that they were accustomed to 
meet together on a stated day before it was 
light, and sang among themselves, alternate¬ 
ly, a hymn to Christ as a God, (or addressed 
themselves in a form of prayer to Christ as 
to some God),* and bound themselves by 
an oath (sacramento) not to the commission 
of any wickedness, but not to be guilty of 
theft, or robbery, or adultery; never to fal¬ 
sify their word, nor to deny a pledge com- 

* Mcln-.o h. 


54 


THE DIVINF ORIGIN 


mitted to them, when called upon to return 
it. When these things were performed, it 
was their custom to separate, and then to 
come together again to a meal promiscuous 
and harmless, but which had been foreborne 
since the publication of my edict, by which, 
according to your commands, I prohibited 
assemblies. 

“ Through this I judged it more necessa¬ 
ry to examine, and that by torture, two maid 
servants, who were called ministers; but I 
have discovered nothing besides a bad and 
excessive superstition. 

“ Suspending,therefore, proceeding, I have 
recourse to you for advice. For it has ap¬ 
peared to me a matter worthy of considera¬ 
tion, especially on account of the great num¬ 
ber of persons who are in danger of suffer¬ 
ing. For many of r.ll ages and of both sex¬ 
es also are brought into danger, and will be 
brought. Nor has the contagion of this su¬ 
perstition spread through cities only, but 
through the towns (villages) and open coun¬ 
try. It seems that it may be restrained and 
corrected. It is certain that the almost des¬ 
olated temples begin to be frequented, and 
the sacred solemnities, after a loner interims- 
sion, are revived; and that the victims are 
everywhere bought, for which, before, a buy¬ 
er was very rarely found; whence it is easy 
to imagine what a multitude of men might 
be reclaimed if place were granted for repen¬ 
tance.” 

Trajan, in his reply, approved Pliny’g 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


55 


proceedings, but ordered Christians not to bo 
sought out, but when brought and convicted, 
to be punished; but allowed those to be for¬ 
given who would repent and supplicate their 
gods.* 

This celebrated letter bears testimony to 
various important facts. Here we see the 
patience of the saints: when in the power of 
their philosophic murderer, they preferred 
suffering death to renouncing their Redeemer. 
Hence we learn how great, how rapid had 
been the success of the gospel: a heathen 
philosopher and priest declares, that it had 
desolated the temples of Bithynia; and had 
literally, for a time, annihilated the sacred 
rites of heathenism. Nor is that part of the 

* Tertullian justly ridicules this unrighteous edict, and ex¬ 
poses the manner in which Christians were persecuted mere¬ 
ly for a name, while common report was charging them with 
killing and eating infants, and witli tlie basest crimes. “ Oh 
what immortal glory would a proconsul gain among the peo¬ 
ple could he pullout a Christian by the ears that had eat up 
a hundred children! But we despair of any such glorious dis¬ 
covery when we reflect on the edict against searching after 
us.—Oh perplexity between reasons of state and justice ! He 
declares us to he innocent by forbidding us to be searched af¬ 
ter, and, at the same time, commands us to be punished as 
criminals. What a mass of kindness and cruelty, connivance 
and punishment is here confounded in one act! Unhappy 
edict ! thus to circumvent and hamper yourself in your own 
ambiguous answer ! If you condemn us, why do you give or¬ 
ders against searching after us ? and if you think it not well 
to search after us, why do you not acquit us ? Soldiers are 
set to patrol in every province for apprehending of robbers— 
A Christian only is a criminal of that strange kind t hat no in¬ 
quiry must be made to find him, and yet when found may ho 
brought to the tribunal. You condemn him therefore when 
brought, whom the laws forbid to be searched after ; not that 
in your hearts you can think him guilty, hut only to get into 
the good graces of the people, whoso zeal has transported 
them to search him out,against the intention of the edipt.” 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


56 

letter less remarkable in which he notices 
what he had learned respecting Christianity 
from those who had forsaken it; some of 
them even twenty years. No system of im¬ 
posture was detected. He makes no state¬ 
ment of this kind, though he himself treated 
it as a base and extravagant superstition. 

After this reference to Pliny’s testimony, 
it is not uninstructive to remark the wide con¬ 
trast that existed between the persecuting 
philosopher and the innocent victims of his 
cruelty. He was. as it appears from his own 
writings, devoted to idols, and acknowledged 
as objects of worship the impure rabble of 
heathen deities; they adored the Creator of 
heaven and earth. He was an augur, who 
soughtinstructions from dreams, oracles,pro¬ 
digies, and various superstitious rites; they 
were guided by the infallible counsels of the 
book ofGod. They followed peace, benev¬ 
olence, and love; he approved of the cruel 
and bloody combats of gladiators, in which', 
for the amusement of spectators, crowds of 
men fought to death with their fellow men, 
or with savage beasts of prey. Thus he 
writes to a friend: “ You were extremely in 
the right to promise a combat of gladiators to 
our good friends the citizens of Verona; not 
only as they have long distinguished you 
with their peculiar esteem and veneration, 
but as it was there also you received the am¬ 
iable object of your affection—your late 
excellent wife. To her memory you owed 
some monument or public show, and this es- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


57 


pecially as most suited to the occasion. I am 
sorry that the African panthers, which you 
had largely provided for that purpose, did 
not arrive in time.” Contrast with Pliny’s 
pleasure in scenes like these, where men 
murdered each other, and where savage 
beasts drank the blood and tore the bodies of 
hapless men, and with his sorrow that some 
of the most savage of those beasts had not 
arrived in time to celebrate in the groans, 
and sighs, and blood, and dying agonies of 
their miserable victims, the death of an ami¬ 
able woman;—contrast with all this the 
Christians, according to his own account, 
meeting to sing a hymn to Christ; and to 
bind themselves to commit no crime ; and 
which must you admire, Pliny, the philo¬ 
sophic persecutor, whom the lovers of clas¬ 
sic heathenism extol and infidels admire, or 
those whom he persecuted, but whose names 
were written in the Lamb’s bookoflife? Yet 
Pliny was one of the most amiable and best 
of ancient heathens; what, then, were the 
worst! and what is the value of that religion 
which proclaims glory to God in the highest, 
and on earih peace, good will towards men ! 
Like Pliny, Trajan was an admirer of glad¬ 
iatorial shows, which, on one occasion in 
his reign, were continued for 123 days; in 
them 11,000 beasts were killed, and 10,000 
men engaged in combats: and, much as Tra¬ 
jan has been extolled in history, according 
to Dion Cassius, he was polluted with vice 
too infamous to be mentioned. 


58 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


The writings of Tacitus and Pliny thus fur¬ 
nish important evidence to various interest¬ 
ing facts connected with the early diffusion 
of Christianity. To their testimonies may 
be added that of Lucian, not indeed as refer¬ 
ring to the extension of Christianity, but to 
the spirit and patience of its early profess¬ 
ors, and as bearing testimony to various im¬ 
portant facts; especially that in Palestine, 
where Christianity arose, it still prevailed; 
that the Lord Jesus who was crucified, was 
the object of Christian worship; and that, in 
imitation of him, the Christians were intent 
on acts of benevolence and love. In describ¬ 
ing the conduct of a philosopher named Per- 
egrinus, often called Proteus, who, when an 
old man, about the year 165 or 169, threw 
himself into the flames, at the Olympic 
games, in the sight of multitudes, and who 
appears in his early life to have professed 
Christianity, and to have been a base hypo¬ 
crite, Lucian writes: “ He learned the won¬ 
derful doctrines of the Christians by convers¬ 
ing with their priests and scribes near Pales¬ 
tine; and in a short time he showed they 
were but children to him.—They still wor¬ 
ship that great man who was crucified in 
Palestine, because he introduced into the 
world this new religion. For this reason, 
Proteus was taken up and put into prison, 
which very thing was of no small service to 
him afterwards, for giving reputation to his 
impostures, and gratifying his vanity. The 
Christians were much grieved for his impris- 


OF CHRIS TIA WITT. 


59 


onment, and tried all ways to procure his 
liberty. Not being able to effect that, they 
did him all sorts of kind offices, and that not 
in a careless manner, but with the greatest 
assiduity: for even betimes in the morning, 
there would be at the prison old women,some 
widows, and also little orphan children; and 
some of the chief of their men, by corrupting 
the keepers, would get into prison, and stay 
the whole night with him: there they had u 
good supper together and their sacred dis¬ 
courses.—Even from the cities of Asia some 
Christians came to him, by an order of the 
body, to relieve, encourage, and comfort him. 
For it is incredible what expedition they use 
when any of their friends are known to be 
in trouble. In a word, they spare nothing 
upon such an occasion; for these miserable 
men have no doubt they shall be immortal, 
and live forever; therefore they despise 
death, and many of them surrender them¬ 
selves to sufferings. Moreover their first 
lawgiver has taught them, that they are all 
brethren, when once they have turned and 
renounced the gods of the Greeks, and wor¬ 
ship this master of theirs who was crucifi¬ 
ed, and engaged to live according to his 
laws. They have also a sovereign contempt 
for all the things of this world, and look up¬ 
on them as common; and trust one another 
with them without any particular securi¬ 
ty.”* Precious testimony to the influeuce 
of the gospel! more precious as deliv- 

* Lueiaa da naort Por. 


60 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


ered not by a glowing friend, but a scoffing 
enemy! 

To those statements respecting the diffu¬ 
sion and powerful effects of Christianity, 
which are furnished by heathen writers, may 
be added the testimony of some of its suffer¬ 
ing friends. Justin Martyr, who is suppos¬ 
ed to have been born within seventy years 
after the Lord’s ascension, who was a hea¬ 
then philosopher, but who embraced Chris¬ 
tianity, and who in the year 140 (or 106 
years after the ascension) presented an a- 
pology for the Christians to the Roman em¬ 
peror Antonine, declares it as a notorious 
tact, that there was no nation of men, wheth¬ 
er Greeks or barbarians, not excepting even 
those wild stragglers, the Amaxobii and No- 
mades, (nations who led a wandering life, 
and lived in tents,) who had no fixed habita¬ 
tion, who had not learned to invoke the one 
Father and Former of all things, in the 
name of Jesus who was crucified. 

This declaration is the more remarkable, 
as it is made in his dialogue with Trypho, 
an inveterate enemy. Justin suffered mar¬ 
tyrdom about the year 165; and about thirty 
years after his death, Clement of Alexandria, 
comparing the success of Christianity and 
of various philosophical systems, remarks, 
cc The philosophers were confined to Greece 
and to their particular retainers, but the doc¬ 
trine of the Master of Christianity did not 
remain in Judea, as philosophy did in 
Greece, but is spread throughout the whole 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


61 


t oorld, in every nation, and village, and city, 
both of Greeks and barbarians, converting 
both whole houses and separate individuals, 
having already brought over to the truth 
not a few of the philosophers themselves.— 
If the Greek philosophy be prohibited, it 
immediately vanishes; whereas, from the 
first preaching of our doctrine, kings and 
tyrants, governors and presidents, with their 
whole train, and with the populace on their 
side, have endeavored with their whole 
might to exterminate it yet it flourishes more 
and more. 55 * 

About the same time as Clement wrote, 
or, at the utmost, but a few years afterwards, 
Tertullian ventured to appeal to the Ro¬ 
man governors, in language which could on¬ 
ly have exposed him and the cause of Chris¬ 
tianity to ridicule, if the number of Chris¬ 
tians had not been immense: “ We are but 
ofyesterday, and we have filled all that is 
yours. Cities, islands, forts, towns, assem¬ 
blies, the camps themselves, wards, com¬ 
panies, the palace, the senate, the forum. 
We leave you only your temples.” 

Referring to the love of Christians to their 
enemies, the same writer remarks, “What 
war can we now be unprepared for? and 
supposing us unequal in strength, yet con¬ 
sidering our usage, what should we not at¬ 
tempt readily? We whom you see so ready 
to meet death in all its forms of cruelty, 

* Clement’* Stromata, or Various discourses, book 6. 


62 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


were it not agreeable to our religion to be 
killed rather than to kill. 

“ We could also make a terrible war upon 
you without arms or fighting, by being so 
passively revengeful as only to leave you:— 
if such a numerous host of Christians should 
but retire from the empire into some remote 
region of the world, the loss of so many men 
of all ranks and degrees, would leave a hid¬ 
eous gap, and a shameful scar upon the gov¬ 
ernment; and the very evacuation would be 
abundant revenge. You would stand aghast 
at your desolation, and be struck dumb at 
the general silence and horror of nature, as 
if the whole world was departed. You would 
be at a loss for men to govern, and in the 
pitiful remains you would find more ene¬ 
mies than citizens; but now you exceed in 
friends, because you exceed in Christians.”* 

About thirty years after Tertullian, Ori- 
gen, in his discourse against Celsus, re¬ 
marks, that throughout all Greece, and in 
all other nations, there were “ innumerable 
and immense multitudes, who, having left 
the laws of their country and those they es¬ 
teemed gods,” had t; given themselves to 
the religion of Christ; and this not without 
the bitterest resentment from the idolaters, 
by whom they were frequently put to tor¬ 
ture, and sometimes to death.” He also 
says, “ it is wonderful to observe, how, in 
so short a time, the religion has increased, 
amidst punishment and death, and every 

* Tertull. Ap. c. xxxvii. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


63 


kind of torture.”—In the same work, refer¬ 
ring to Christians, he remarks: “By how 
much the more emperors and governors of 
provinces and the people every where strove 
to depress them, so much the more have 
they increased and prevailed exceedingly.” 

9. These ancient testimonies (and others 
might be added) show that Christianity 
speedily spread abroad to an astonishing ex¬ 
tent. This rapid extension of Christianity 
appears the more remarkable, when we 
consider its nature. Think how averse e- 
ven the professedly Christian world are to 
comply with what it requires; think how 
difficult you find this duty; and then think 
how much more difficult must ancient hea¬ 
thens, immersed in the lowest depths of sen¬ 
suality and vice, have found it to embrace 
the holy gospel. Compare what modern 
missions have been able to effect, when not 
placed in such unfavorable circumstances 
as the apostles were, but under the protection 
of powerful governments. How few con¬ 
verts have crowned their labors. Yet they 
are preaching the same gospel; and what 
can be the reason of so great a difference in 
their success, but that the first enjoyed pe¬ 
culiar divine aid, and at once convinced 
their hearers of the truth of what they 
preached, by commanding the diseased to 
health, or the dead to life, while the latter 
labor to convince them by evidence, which, 
to such persons, and so situated, they can but 
slowly unfold? Suppose twelve men, pog- 


64 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


sessed of no supernatural powers, were now 
to disperse themselves into different coun¬ 
tries, that they might disciple the world, you 
cannot suppose they would meet with suc¬ 
cess; yet on such an errand twelve men, 
professedly the followers of a crucified mas¬ 
ter, once set out, and soon converted thou¬ 
sands and tens of thousands. They had 
to encounter the pride of philosophers, 
the riches of the wealthy, the influence 
of the priests, the power of princes, 
and, worse than all these, all the corrupt 
passions of the human heart in the whole 
mass of mankind, and yet they triumphed! 
Theirs was a message of such a nature, and 
delivered under such circumstances, that not 
one human being would naturally he friend¬ 
ly to it. Princes would scorn Galilean fish¬ 
ermen, going forth as instructors of the 
world. Philosophers would despise a wis¬ 
dom which represented their boasted wisdom 
as folly. Priests would hate a system that 
would overturn their altars, desolate their 
temples, and strip them of all their ill gotten 
wealth, influence, and grandeur. The peo¬ 
ple would abhor a system that forbade all 
their idolatrous revellings, and struck at the 
root of all their superstitions. And princes, 
philosophers, priests, and people would all 
hate a religion that declared them to be per¬ 
ishing in sin ; that pronounced their hearts 
depraved, their lives wicked, their hopes 
false, their worship abominable idolatry, and 
their gods senseless blocks of wood and stone; 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


65 


which would compromise nothing, hut firmly 
required the renunciation of all their vices, 
or foretold their eternal destruction; and that 
thus left them no alternative between repent¬ 
ance and perdition. Yet, though the religion 
of the gospel is of so holy and unyielding a 
nature, that every class in society would bo 
armed against it, and an enemy be found in 
•every human heart ; yet, hated, despised, 
and persecuted, it marched on from conquer¬ 
ing to conquer, desolating idol temples, over¬ 
turning the hoary systems of heathen su¬ 
perstition, and, in its most effectual triumph, 
bringing millions to receive Jesus Christ as 
their all for time, and their bliss for eternity. 
AV'heuce sprung these triumphs but from the 
power of the Most High? In them we see 
the finger of God. 

That this was the cause of its triumph, 
cannot reasonably be denied; yet if a rea¬ 
sonable denial were as possible as it is im¬ 
possible, it has been strikingly remarked, 
“ If it be denied that Jesus performed mira- 
-cles, how great then is that miracle, that so 
many should be the followers of a man poor, 
despised, destitute of miraculous power; that 
when he is dead they should die for him.” 

10. After this survey of some decisive 
proofs of the divinity of Christianity, and this 
glance at its rapid diffusion, it will not be un¬ 
interesting, and cannot be uninstructive, to 
notice the spirit with which the primitive 
disciples suffered the persecutions to which, 
for nearly three centuries, they were mora 


66 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


or less exposed. Besides confiscations, im¬ 
prisonments, torments, and death, they were 
loaded with the basest calumnies. They 
were represented as indulging in their reli¬ 
gious meetings in the most horrid impurities, 
and as eating the flesh and drinking the 
blood of infants. They were represented as 
atheists, because they worshipped not the 
idols of the nations. The name of Chris¬ 
tian was frequently sufficient to ensure their 
condemnation. The Lord’s prophecy was 
strikingly verified ; “ Ye shall be hated of 

all men for my name's sake." Many affect¬ 
ing and, to a pious mind, delightful illustra¬ 
tions of their spirit amidst these scenes of 
suffering are to be found in the writings of 
the primitive apologists. 

Justin Martyr writes, “ It is a maxim a- 
mong us Christians, that we cannot possibly 
suffer any real hurt, if we cannot be con¬ 
victed of doing any real evil. You may kill 
us indeed , but you cannot hurt us. —It is in 
our power, at any time, to escape your tor¬ 
ments, by denying the faith, when you ques¬ 
tion us about it, but we scorn to 'purchase 
life at the expense of a lie, for our souls are 
winged with desire of a life of eternal dura¬ 
tion and purity, of an immediate conversa¬ 
tion with God the Father and Maker of all 
things; we are in haste to be confessing and 
finishing our faith, being fully persuaded that 
we shall arrive at this beatific state, if we ap¬ 
prove ourselves to God by our work; and 
express by our obedience our passion for that 


OF CHRISTIANITY. C7 

divine life, which is never interrupted by any 
clashing evil. 

“Upon the first word you hear of our ex¬ 
pectations of a kingdom, you rashly conclude 
it must be a kingdom upon earth, notwith¬ 
standing all we can say that it is one in 
heaven; and though you have such an exper¬ 
imental proof to the contrary, from our pro¬ 
fessing ourselves Christians upon examina¬ 
tion, when we know death to be the certain 
consequence of such a profession : but were 
our thoughts fixed upon a kingdom of this 
world, we should surely deny our religion, 
for the safety of our lives; and have recourse 
to all the methods of concealment, to secure 
us unhurt against the good day we expected. 
But since our hopes do not fasten upon 
things present, the preservation of our lives 
is the least of our concern, because we know 
our murderers can cut us short but a few 
days; for all must die.” 

Our Master Jesus Christ, from whom we 
take the name of Christians, the Son and 
Apostle of that God, who is the supreme 
Lord and Maker of the universe, has foretold 
our sufferings; which to us is a manifest 
confirmation of the truth of all his other 
doctrines, because we see these things ful¬ 
filled according to his prediction; for this or 
nothing is the work of God, to declare a 
thing shall come to be long before it is in 
being, and then to bring about that thing 
to pass according to the same declara¬ 
tion.” 


68 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


Minucius Felix, who lived about the same 1 
time as Tertullian, remarks; “How fair a 
spectacle in the sight of God is a Christian 
entering the lists with affliction, and, with 
a noble firmness, combating menaces, racks, 
and tortures! When, with a disdainful 
smile, he marches to execution, through the 
clamors of the people, and insults the hor¬ 
rors of the executioner! When he bravely 
maintains his liberty against kings and 
princes, and submits to God alone, whose 
servant he is! When like a conqueror he 
triumphs over the judge that condemns him ! 
—A. soldier of God is neither abandoned in 
misery nor lost in death. And though a 
Christian may seem to be miserable, yet, in 
reality, he can never be so. Some sufferers 
you yourselves exalt to the skies; such as 
Mutius Scevola, who, having missed his aim 
in killing a king, voluntarily burnt the mis¬ 
taking hand, and so saved his life by his 
hardiness. And how many persons are there 
among us who have suffered not only their- 
hand, but their whole body to be burnt, with¬ 
out complaining, when their deliverance was 
in their own power! But why do I compare 
our men with your Mucius, or Aquilius, or 
Reyulus , when our very children our sons 
and our daughters, by an inspired patience, 
make a mere jest of your gibbets, and racks, 
and wild beasts, and all your other scarecrows 
of cruelty. And is not this enough to con¬ 
vince you, that nothing but the strongest 
reasons could persuade men to suffer at this 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 69 

rate; and nothing less than Almighty power 
support them ?” 

The declarations of Tertullian, when ap¬ 
pealing upon this subject to the persecutors 
themselves, are very spirited and peculiarly 
pleasing ; “ We argue against our adversaries 
upon two articles—for hating us ignorantly, 
and, consequently, for hating us unjustly. 
And that you hate us ignorantly I prove from 
hence, because all who hated us heretofore 
did it upon the same ground, being no longer 
able to continue our enemies than they con¬ 
tinued ignorant of our religion; their hatred 
and their ignorance fell together. Such are 
the men you now see Christians, manifestly 
overcome by the piety of our profession; and 
who now’ reflect upon their lives past with 
.abhorrence, and profess it to the world.—We 
have been heathens as you are. for men are 
not born but made Christians.—We say we 
are Christians, and say it to the whole world, 
under the hands of the executioner, and in 
the midst of all the tortures you exercise us 
with to unsay it. Torn and mangled, and 
covered over in our own blood, we cry out as 
loud as we are able to cry, that we are wor¬ 
shippers of God through Christ. It is in 
every one’s mouth, that Christ was a man, 
and a man too condemned to death by the 
very Jews—however this their wickedly un¬ 
grateful treatment of Christ makes us not 
ashamed of our Master; so far from it that 
it is the joy and triumph of our souls to he 
called by our Lord’s name and condemned 


70 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


for it. The truth we profess we know to he 
a stranger upon earth, and she expects not 
friends in a strange land; hut she came from 
heaven, and her abode is there, and there 
are all our hopes, all our friends, and all our 
perferments. 

“ The guilty hunt for refuge in darkness, 
and when apprehended, tremble; when ac¬ 
cused, deny; and are hardly to be tormented 
into a confession; when condemned, they 
sink down in sadness, and turn over their 
number of sins in confusion of conscience, 
and charge the guilt upon the stars or des¬ 
tiny; unwilling to acknowledge that as their 
own act, which they acknowledge to be crim¬ 
inal. 

“But do you see any thing like this in 
the deportment of Christians? Not one Chris¬ 
tian blushes or repents, unless it be for not 
having been a Christian sooner. If a Chris¬ 
tian goes to trial, he goes like a victor, with 
the air of a triumph; if he is impeached, he 
glories in it; if indicted, he makes no de¬ 
fence at bar; when interrogated, he frankly 
confesses; and when condemned, returns 
thanks to his judges. 

What reason, say you, have we Christians 
to complain of our sufferings, when we are so 
fond of persecution ? we ought rather to love 
those who persecute us so sweetly to our 
heart’s content. It is true, indeed, we are 
not against suffering when the Captain of our 
salvation calls us forth to suffer; but let me 
tell you, it is with us in our Christian warfare 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


71 


as it is with you in yours, wechoose to suffer 
as you choose to fight; but no man chooses 
fighting for fighting’s sake, because he cannot 
engage without fear and hazard of life. 
Nevertheless, when the brave soldier finds he 
must engage, he battles it off with all his 
power, and if he comes off victorious, is full 
of joy, though just before not without his 
complaints ofa military life, because he has 
obtained his end, laden with glory, laden with 
spoil. Thus it is with Christians: we enter 
into battle when we are cited to your tri¬ 
bunals, there to combat for truth with the 
hazard of our life. To set up truth is our 
victory, and the victor’s glory is to please his 
God, and the precious spoil of that victory is 
eternal life; and this life we certainly win by 
dying for it; therefore we conquer when we 
are killed; and being killed, are out of the 
reach of you, and all other vexations for 
ever. 

“ Give us now what names you please, 
from the instruments of cruelty by which you 
torture us; callus scirrnenticians and semax- 
ians, because you fasten us to trunks of trees, 
and stick us about with fagots to set us on 
fire; yet let me tell you, when we are thus 
begirt and dressed about with fire, we are then 
in our most triumphant apparel. These are 
our victorious palms and robes of glory; and 
mounted upon our funeral pile we look upon 
ourselves in our triumphal chariot. No 
wonder, then, that such passive heroes please 
not those they vanquish with such conquering 


72 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


sufferings; and therefore vve pass for men of 
despair, and violently bent upon our own de¬ 
struction. However, that which you are 
pleased to call madness and despair in us, are 
the very actions which, under Virtue’s stand¬ 
ard, lift up your sons of fame and glory, and 
emblazon them to future ages. A man shall 
suffer with honor for his country, for the 
empire, for a friend, what he is not tolerated 
to suffer for his God. He who expects a real 
resurrection, and in hopes of this suffers for 
the word of God, shall pass among you for a 
sot and a madman.” 

The invincible passive courage of the early 
Christians contributed greatly to promote the 
diffusion of religion. Lactantius observes, 
“ It is through our divine pence and the mira¬ 
cle of our courage, that multitudes come over 
to us. For when the common people behold 
men torn to pieces by various kinds of tor¬ 
ments, yet maintain unconquered patience in 
the midst of their wearied tormentors, they 
suppose, what is really the case, that the con¬ 
sent of so many, and the perseverance of the 
dying, cannot be vain and unfounded; and 
that patience to overcome such dreadful tor¬ 
ments could not exist, unless from God,” 

Much of p practical nature may be learned 
from contemplating these illustrations of 
primitive fortitude, and much more from ob¬ 
serving the spirit of elevated piety which 
glowed in the hearts, and is breathed forth 
in the writings, of some of the early follow¬ 
er* of the Lord. 


OF CHRISTIANITY, 


73 


Justin remarks; cc It is certain, we cannot 
justly be branded as atheists, we who worship 
the Creator of the universe, not with blood, 
libations, and incense, of which we are suffi¬ 
ciently taught he stands in no need; but 
we exalt him, to the best of our power, with 
the rational service of prayers and praises, in 
all the oblations we make to him; believing 
this to be the only honor worthy of him; 
not to consume the creatures which he has 
given us for our use, and the comfort of those 
that want, in the fire by sacrifice, but to ap¬ 
prove ourselves thankful to him in the ra¬ 
tional pomp of the most solemn hymns at 
the altar, in acknowledgment of our creation, 
preservation, and all the blessings of variety 
in things and seasons; and also for the hopes 
of a resurrection to a life incorruptible, 
which we are sure to have for asking, pro¬ 
vided we ask in faith. Who that knows any 
thing of us will not confess this to be our 
way of worshipping? and who can stigma¬ 
tize such worshippers for atheists? The 
Master who instructed us in this kind of wor¬ 
ship, and who was born for this very purpose, 
and crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator 
of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius Ccesar, is 
Jesus Christ, whom we know to be the Son 
of the true God, and therefore hold him the 
second in order, and the Prophetic Spirit 
the third. Here they look upon it as down¬ 
right madness to assign to a crucified man, 
the next place to the immutable, eternal 
God, parent of all things, being entirely 


74 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


in the dark as to the mystery of this or¬ 
der.” 

“ We are taught, and most firmly believe 
and know, that they only are the acceptable 
worshippers of God who form their minds by 
the mind eternal, and express it in temper¬ 
ance, justice, humanity, and such other vir¬ 
tues as are the essential excellences of the 
divine nature.” 

“We, who heretofore delighted in de¬ 
bauchery, now strictly contain within the 
bounds of chastity. We, who devoted our¬ 
selves to magic arts,now consecrate ourselves 
entirely to the good, unbegotten God. We, 
who loved nothing like our possessions, now 
produce all we have in common, and spread 
our whole stock before our indigent brethren. 
We, who were pointed with mutual hatred 
and destruction, and would not so much as 
warm ourselves at the same fire with those of 
a different tribe, upon the account of different 
institutions, now, since the coming of Christ, 
dwell and diet together, and pray for our 
enemies; and all our returns for evil are but 
the gentlest presuasives to convert those who 
unjustly hate us. A Christian hand must 
by no means be lifted up in resistance; for 
Christ will not have his disciples like the 
rest of the world, but orders them to shine 
with a distinguished patience and meekness, 
and to win men over from their sins by such 
gentle arts of conversion. Audi could give 
you a proof of the influence of such bright 
examples from many converts among us, 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


75 


who, from men of violence and oppression, 
were transformed into quite another nature, 
perfectly overcome by the passive courage of 
their Christian neighbors; or by observing 
the new astonishing patience of such injured 
Christians as they chanced to travel with; or 
the experience they had of their fidelity in 
their dealings.” 

Athenagoras, who wrote an apology for 
Christianity, which is inscribed to the em¬ 
peror Marcus Aurelius, soon after Justin’s 
martyrdom, writes, “ What are our rules? 
Even these: ‘ Love your enemies, bless them 
that curse you, pray for them that persecute 
you, that ye may be the children of your 
Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his 
sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and 
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’ 
Since 1 make ray apology before emperors 
who are philosophers, let me challenge any 
of the tribe of sophisters, who yet pretend to 
give their readers such information and hap¬ 
piness from these studies, to show such a 
mild disposition of soul, a heart so cleared 
from rancor and malice, as to return even 
their enemies love for hatred; to bless those 
who unjustly revile thorn; nay, to pray for 
those who attempt their very lives. Among 
us you find unlettered men, ordinary mechan¬ 
ics, and women, though they cannot by 
words defend or advantage our religion, yet 
adorn it, and set it off by bright examples in 
their actions. They study not the fineness of 
composition, but practise the solidity ofvir- 


76 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


tue; when struck they strike not again; they 
prosecute not those who rob them; they are 
charitable to such as stand in need of their 
assistance; and, in a word, love their neigh¬ 
bors, that is all men, as themselves. Being 
thoroughly convinced that we shall one day 
give an account of our lives and actions to the 
great Creator of us and all the world, we 
choose such a gentle, meek, and generally 
despised, method of life; assuring ourselves 
that we can suffer no evil from our persecu¬ 
tors, (no, though it were the loss of our very 
lives,) which can be of any value or consid¬ 
eration when compared to that exceeding 
great reward which God will give us here¬ 
after. 

“ Our accusers charge us with feasting on 
human flesh and incests. The integrity of 
our lives is not blemished by the accusations 
of our enemies. Before God we are still in¬ 
nocent. Had we no hopes beyond the pres¬ 
ent life and sensual enjoyments, there might 
be a probability we might follow the dictates of 
flesh and blood, and be lovers of pleasure and 
lovers of money. But we believe that an 
omnipresent and omniscient Being observes 
our thoughts and actions, and that he is light 
und sees the hidden things of our hearts; 
we believe that after being delivered from 
this mortal condition, we shall enjoy a hap¬ 
pier and an eternal heavenly life hereafter,liv¬ 
ing for ever with God, not subject to passion 
or change, not like flesh and blood, though 
we shall have bodies, but like pure heavenly 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


77 


spirit; and the truth of this we confess even 
at the stake and in the midst of the flames. 
Since this is our faith, it is absurd to suppose 
we should study and endeavor to commit 
such unheard of wickedness, and voluntarily 
expose ourselves to be punished by the great 
Judge. How can we be suspected of any 
breach of chastity, who dare not use our very 
eyes otherwise than God designed them, that 
is, to be lights to our bodies? who think 
that to look with desire is to commit adultery, 
nay, believe we shall be judged for our very 
thoughts? For we are not under a human 
dispensation and law, where we might be 
wicked and concealed; but we have received 
our law from God; and we have a law which 
requires the most exact justice with regard to 
ourselves, and from us to our neighbors. 
Therefore, according to the differences of age, 
we esteem some as brothers and sisters, and 
others as sons and daughters. The elder we 
honor as fathers and mothers; and esteem 
it one of the greatest acts of our religion to 
preserve chaste and unpolluted the bodies of 
those whom we call brothers and sisters, or 
by any name or kindred. Having a sure 
hope of everlasting life, we despise the pre¬ 
sent sensual pleasures and enjoyments. Our 
religion is not a study of words, but a prac¬ 
tice of actions and virtues.” 

Tertullian observes, “ To wish ill, to do> 
ill, to speak ill, or to think ill of any one, we 
are forbidden without exception. What is in¬ 
justice to an emperor is injustice to his slave.” 


78 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


“The God we pray to is the eternal God, 
the true God, the God of life. To this Almigh¬ 
ty Maker and Disposer of all things, it is that 
we Christians offer up our prayers, with eyes 
lifted up to heaven, unfolded hands in token 
of our simplicity, and with uncovered heads, 
because we have nothing to blush for in our 
devotion, and without a prompter, because we 
pray with our hearts rather than our tongues. 
—These are blessings I cannot persuade my¬ 
self to ask of any but him who I know can 
give them; and that is my God, and only 
my God who has them at his disposal; and 
I am one to whom he has obliged himself by 
promise to grant what I ask, if I ask as I 
should do. For I am his servant, and serve 
him only, for whose service I am killed all 
the day long; and to whom I offer that noble 
and greatest of sacrifices which he has com¬ 
manded—a prayer that somes from a chaste 
body, an innocent soul, and a sanctified 
spirit . 55 

“ Thus then while we are stretching forth 
our hands to God, let your tormenting irons 
harrow our flesh; let your gibbets exalt us, 
or your fires lick up our bodies, or your 
swords cut off our heads, or your beasts tread 
us to the earth. For a Christian upon his 
knees to his God, is in a posture of defence 
against all the evils you can crowd upon 
him . 55 

Minucius furnishes a charming delinea¬ 
tion of what, doubtless, in his day multitudes 
of Christians were. “Our feasts are not only 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


79 


chaste but sober; for we neither indulge in 
eating, nor do we spin out the repast with 
wine, but temper cheerfulness with gravity. 
Pure in discourse, in body purer. Nor are 
we factious though we are all bent upon the 
same kingdom, and relish but one and the 
same happiness; for we are as quiet and in¬ 
offensive in our assemblies, as when we are 
all alone. The daily increase of our numbers 
is so far from a disparagement to our religion, 
that it is a testimony in its commendation; 
for the Christian party are faithful adherents 
to their holy profession, and are continually 
augmented by heathens. Nor do we know 
one another by any private marks upon our 
bodies, as you vainly imagine, but our inno¬ 
cence and modesty are our badges of distinc¬ 
tion. The love which, to your sorrow, we 
express to one another, is because we are 
perfect strangers to all hatred. And where¬ 
as we call ourselves brethren , a title you must 
envy us for, it is because we look upon our¬ 
selves as the children of the one God, parent 
of all things; as partakers of the same faith, 
and coheirs of the same hope. You punish 
wickedness in the ovqrt act, and we look 
upon it as criminal when it goes no further 
than the bare thought; you dread the con¬ 
sciousness of others, and we stand in awe of 
nothing but our own consciences, without 
which we cannot be Christians. Your prisons 
are in a manner stifled with criminals, but 
they are all heathens, not a Christian there, 
but either a confessor or an apostle.—Many 


80 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


of us are reproached with poverty. I must 
tell you that we look upon it not as our in¬ 
famy but our honor. Yet who can be said 
to be poor who finds himself in no want? 
who has no gapings after another’s pos¬ 
sessions who is rich in God? We had much 
rather be able to despise riches than to pos¬ 
sess them. Innocence is the top of our de*- 
sire; patience the thing we beg for; and we 
had rather be abundantly good than extrava¬ 
gantly rich. And though we lie under afflic¬ 
tions of body, to which, as men, we are ex¬ 
posed, yet we look upon this not as our 
punishment but our warfare. It is not there¬ 
fore that we are such sufferers because our 
God is either unable or unwilling to help us, 
since he is both the Sovereign of the world, 
and a lover of his servants, but he tries 1 and 
examines us by adversity. 

“ We celebrate the funerals of our dead 
with the same decency and quiet in which we 
live; dress up no withering garland, but the 
neverfading crown of glory we expect from 
God; we who sit down contented with the 
liberality of our God in this life, who live 
above fears in the hopes of future felicity, 
and are animated in these hopes by the as¬ 
surances we now have of that divine majesty 
which is-so present to us in time of need, 
thus happy shall we find ourselves in the res¬ 
urrection, and blessed all our life long in 
the contemplation of what shall be. Be¬ 
hold how all nature is at work to comfort us 
with images of our future resurrection. The 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


81 


sun sets and rises again; the stars glide away 
and return; the flowers die and revive; the 
trees put forth afresh after the decays of 
age; and that which thou sowest is not quick¬ 
ened except it die. Just so may our bodies 
lie in the grave till the season of resurrec¬ 
tion. Why then so hasty for a resurrection 
in the dead of winter? We must wait with 
patience for the spring of human bodies.”* 
These testimonies to the spirit of the early 
disciples of the Savior, are not valuable 
merely as illustrating the character of those 
who by thousands sacrificed their all for 
Christ, but as teaching us what should be the 
spirit of Christians now. Reader, are 3 ou 
professedly a Christian? If so,are you influ- 
-eneed by the spirit just described? Do you so 
count all things loss for Christ’s sake as to 
be willing to suffer reproach and shame, and 
every evil for him? Are your affections plac¬ 
ed above, and are you panting for a home in 
heaven? and, while struggling through the 
wilderness of life, have you learned to dis¬ 
play the meekness and gentleness, the benev¬ 
olence and kindness of Christ? Have you 
learned to wish ill, to do ill, to speak ill, to 
think ill of none? to conquer foes by kindness, 
and enmity by love? Perhaps, instead of 
this, you feel convinced that no one part of 

* The passages here brought together aro- collected from 
the Apologihs of the writers quoted. As most of these works 
are brief, it is judged unnecessary to refer to the parts in 
which the selected passages are to be found. The translation 
of JMinucins Felix, Ju9tin, and Tertu Tau, iithat by Reevea, 
though occasionally slightly altered. 

6 


82 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


the description applies to yourself. If so, 
delude not yourself by fancying that you are 
a Christian, when your character is as differ¬ 
ent from that of those who first bore that 
honored name as darkness is from light. 
But perhaps you can trace the likeness in 
yourself, though in lines too faint. Then, 
O pray that you may more resemble them, 
who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises;—above all strive and pray that you 
may resemble their exalted Lord, from whose 
grace and example all their excellences were 
derived. 


CHAPTER III. 

The prophecies of the Old and New Testa¬ 
ment a proof of the divine origin of Chris¬ 
tianity. 

1. Remarks on prophecy—2. The prophecy respect¬ 
ing the Arabians—3. Prophecies respecting the 
Isrealites—4. Prophecies respecting Nineveh,Baby- 
lon, and Tyre—5. Predictions respecting the 
Lord Jesus Christ—6. The conversion of the gen¬ 
tiles—7. Their subjection to Christ—8. The bless¬ 
ings of his reign—9. The permanency of his king¬ 
dom—10. Remarks on the predictions referred to in 
sections 5 to 9—11. Predictions of the Lord Jesus 
respecting the sufferings of his disciples—12. And 
the ruin of the Jewish nation—13. Prophecies re¬ 
specting antichrist. 

1. Prophecy is another kind of evidence 
which strongly attests the divinity of Chris- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 83 

tianity, and of the holy scriptures. Futurity 
is so hidden from the inspection of man, 
that no human being can certainly foretell 
the events of the morrow; but still more 
unable is man to declare what shall happen 
in distant ages, among the unborn genera¬ 
tions of nations not yet existing. Yet it is 
an incontrovertible fact, that many events 
of this description were foretold by the 
prophets, by the Lord Jesus, or his apostles^ 
Some of these have long since been fulfilled, 
and others are now accomplishing. 

2. Nearly 3800 years ago, it was foretold 
respecting Ishmael, the father of the Ara¬ 
bians, “ He shall be a wild man, his hand will 
be against every man, and every man’s hand 
against him; and he shall dwell in the pres¬ 
ence of all his brethren,” Gen. xvi. 12. This 
prophecy is easily shown to refer to his de¬ 
scendants as much or more than himself, (see 
Gen. xvii. 20.) and has been remarkably ful¬ 
filled for age after age down to the present 
time. Still do the Arabians retain the wild 
character which has distinguished them for 
above 3000 years. Mighty conquerors and 
nations have warred against them, but never 
finally subdued them. Those nations are 
vanished away, but the decendants of Ishmael 
still exist a distinct people, dreaded by neigh¬ 
boring nations against whom their hands 
are turned, but still unsubdued and indepen¬ 
dent. 

3. Three thousand three hundred years 
ago, Moses, the lawgiver of the Jews, de- 




84 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


dared to them, that if they forsook their 
God, after an enemy from a distant country 
had destroyed their cities, and heaped numer¬ 
ous miseries upon them, the Lord would 
scatter them among all people, from one end 
of the earth even to the other; and that among 
these nations they should find no rest for the 
sole of their foot, Deut. xxviii. 64 . For 
nearly 1800 years has this prophecy been re¬ 
ceiving a dreadful accomplishment. Their 
cities were destroyed, their temple burnt, 
their country seized, and nearly two millions 
of them slaughtered, by the Romans, in the 
reigns of Vespasian and Adrian. Since 
that period they have been scattered through 
the world, and trodden under foot, not mere¬ 
ly in professedly Christian countries, but even 
by heathen nations, who are unacquainted 
with the crime that has exposed them to the 
wrath of Heaven. Their history since their 
expulsion from Judea is 1 ittleelse than adetail 
of the extortion, oppression, and persecution 
which they have endured; and of their exile 
from one country or another, so that though 
scattered through the world, they have 
been without a country they could call their 
own. Considerably above 2000 years ago, 
the Lord by another prophet declared, “ I 
will make a full end of all the nations whither 
I have driven thee, but I will not make a 
full end of thee,” Jer. xlvi. 28 . Not less 
remarkably is this prophecy fulfilled at the 
present day. The Assyrians, the Babyloni¬ 
ans, the Romans, and other nations, that 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


93 


conquered the Jews, are blotted from the 
list of nations,—their name and history is all 
that remains ofthem; but the Jews, oppress¬ 
ed, despised, exiled, trodden in the dust, still 
continue a distinct people, mixed with almost 
all nations, but united to none: they exist a 
continued miracle;—a standing testimony 
to the divinity of that book, which records 
their crimes, and foretells their sorrows, their 
dispersion, and yet their preservation. 

4. The scripture prophecies respecting 
those mighty cities, that were once the seats 
of empire, or the principal scenes of com¬ 
merce, wealth, and grandeur, deserve atten¬ 
tion. Such cities were Nineveh, Babylon, 
and Tyre. The two former the capitals of 
powerful empires, the latter that city whose 
merchants were princes. Nahum foretold 
the destruction of Nineveh; and Nineveh 
has long since been swept from the earth by 
the besom of destruction. Isaiah pronoun¬ 
ced the doom of Babylon, and threatened 
with ruin that proud and haughty city; a 
heathen has recorded the fulfillment of the 
just, divine sentence. Tvre, once their rival 
in wealth, has partaken of their fall, and 
shared in their ruin. These prophecies are 
rendered more remarkable, in consequence 
of the scriptures specifying various minute 
circumstances connected with their downfal, 
and yet containing no account of the fulfill¬ 
ment of the prophecy, at which a writer, 
designing to recommend himself to notice ns 
a prophet,would at least have glanced. From 


86 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


other writers we learn their fulfillment. 
Diodorus*Siculus, a heathen historian, states 
that Nineveh was £ixty miles in compass. 
Nahum foretold that this city should be taken 
when the Assyrians were drunken, that the 
gates of the river should be opened, and the 
palace be dissolved, Nahum i. 10. ii. 6. Dio¬ 
dorus states, that the Assyrian camp was 
forced and the army defeated, when drunken¬ 
ness and negligence prevailed; that the river 
broke down the wall for twenty furlongs; 
and that then the king, believing ruin at hand, 
built a funeral pile in his palace, and con¬ 
sumed together, his wealth, his concubines, 
his palace, and himself. Babylon was a city 
that might have appeared to defy the enmity 
of man. Herodotus states that its walls were 
850 feet high, and 87 thick, that it had a 
hundred gates of solid brass, and was about 
the size of Nineveh; and Berosus adds, that 
some of its buildings appeared almost like 
mountains. It had stood for many centuries 
when Isaiah foretold its destruction. He 
prophesied that it should be overthrown by 
Cyrus, and the Medes and Persians, Isa. xxi. 
2. xliv. 28. xlv. 1. Jer. li. 11. That its gates 
should not be shut, Isa. xlv. 1. Thatits wa¬ 
ters should be dried up, Isa. xliv. 27. Jer. 1. 
S3. That it should be taken when its great 
men were drunken at a feast, Jer. li. 89. 51. 
57. From the historians Xenophon and 
Herodotus we learn that this was literally 
accomplished. The Medes and Persians 
under Cyrus were the conquerors of Babylon. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


81 


Its gates towards the Euphrates were left 
open, and he took the city by turning the 
course of the river, there a quarter of a mile 
wide, and then entering the neglected gates 
through the dried channel, on a night when 
the inhabitants, in consequence of an annual 
festival, were indulging in dancing, revelling, 
and drinking. Isaiah threatened its utter de¬ 
struction, and this has been so fulfilled that it 
has long been a subject of dispute where Bab¬ 
ylon stood. Tyre was a city not less memor- 
able,and mentioned as a strong city in the book 
of Joshua. Ezekiel foretold its ruin, and vari¬ 
ous circumstances connected with its fate; 
and ancient history records the fulfillment of 
his predictions. Among other circumstances 
mentioned in those predictions, it is said, 
“I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou 
shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou 
shalt be built no more.” Ezek. xxvi. 14. Mr. 
Maundrel mentions that its modern inhabi¬ 
tants are a few poor creatures who have been 
born in its vaults, and subsist on fishing; 
and a person who resided ten years in Syria 
stated, that, upon the stones scattered up and 
down its now desolated shore, he beheld the 
fishermen’s nets spread out to dry. 

5. The predictions contained in the Old 
Testament respecting the Lord Jesus Christ 
deserve the devout attention of all his pro¬ 
fessed disciples. The volume of prophecy 
was unsealed in paradise,when the first prom¬ 
ise of a Deliverer was given to man, and 
gradually opened, displaying more and more 


83 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


of the excellences of him that was to come. 
The accomplishment of some of these pre¬ 
dictions may not, however, to a person who 
doubts the divine origin of Christianity, ap¬ 
pear so conclusive and impressive, as that of 
others that may be seen fulfilled, and fulfill¬ 
ing before our eyes. To these, therefore, 
references shall here be 'principally made. 

Let it be premised, and let the reader keep 
in mind, that the Old Testament, in which 
the predictions now to be brought forward 
are found, is a completely distinct volume 
from the New. It is handed down to us from 
a different source, not originally from the 
disciples of Jesus, but from the Jews, his 
inveterate enemies. It has ever been in their 
keeping, and still is preserved by them, 
wherever scattered, as the book of God; and 
preserved with a scrupulosity, that has led 
them to number the words and even the let¬ 
ters it contains. No one, therefore, unless 
he would outdo all that is most absurd in 
absurdity, can hazard the assertion, that the 
predictions of that book were forged by Chris¬ 
tians, , that their pretended accomplishment 
might give a sanction to Christianity; for 
as the book containing them always has been 
in the hands of the enemies of Christianity, 
this was utterly impossible. 

The Old Testament contains predictions 
that at some period of time a great benefac¬ 
tor to the human race should arise. In him all 
nations were sooner or later to be blessed. 

Among the predictions announcing this 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


89 


event are the following. God said to Abra¬ 
ham, “ In thy seed shall all the nations of 
the earth be blessed,” Gen. xxii. 18 . 

“ My covenant will I establish with Isaac,” 
Gen. xvii. 21 . 

To Jacob he said, “In thee and in thy 
seed shall all the families of the earth be 
blessed,” Gen. xxviii. 14 . 

Other predictions are—“ The sceptre shall 
not depart from Judah —till Shiloh corne, 
and unto him shall the gathering of the peo¬ 
ple be,” Gen, xlix. 10. 

“ There shall come forth a rod out of the 
stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out 
of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall 
rest upon him,” Isa. xi. 1, 2. 

“ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 
that I will raise unto David a righteous- 
branch and a king shall reign and prosper, 
and shall execute judgment and justice in 
the earth,” Jer. xxiii. 5 . 

“Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though 
thou be little among the thousands of Judah, 
yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me 
that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings 
forth have been from of old, from everlast¬ 
ing,” Mic. v. 2. 

“ He shall grow up before him as a tender 
plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he 
hath no form nor comeliness; and when we 
shall see him, there is no beauty that we 
should desire him.” Isa. liii. 2. 

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; 
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I 



90 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


have put my Spirit upon him: he shall 
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He 
shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice 
to be heard in the street. A bruised reed 
shall he not break, and the smoking flax 
shall he not quench; he shall bring forth 
judgment unto truth,” Isa. xlii. J— 3 . 

“ Then the eyes of the blind shall be open¬ 
ed, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstop¬ 
ped. Then shall the lame man leap as an 
hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for 
in the wilderness shall waters break out, and 
streams in the desert,” Isa. xxxv. 5 , 6. 

“ He is despised and rejected of men; a 
man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: 
and we hid as it were our faces from him; 
he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried 
our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, 
smitten of God, and afflicted,” Isa. liii. 3 , 4 . 

“ He hath poured out his soul unto death: 
and he was numbered with the transgressors; 
and he bare the sin of many, and made in¬ 
tercession for the transgressors,” Isa. liii. 12. 

“ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, 
yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought 
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep 
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth 
not his mouth,” Isa. liii. 7 . 

“And he made his grave with the wicked, 
and with the rich in his dfeath; because he 
had done no violence, neither was any deceit 
in his mouth,” Isa. liii. 9 . 

“The desire of all nations shall come, and 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


91 


I will fill this house with glory, saith the 
Lord,” Hag. ii. 7. 

“ Seventy weeks are determined upon thy 
people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the 
transgression, and to make an end of sins, 
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and 
to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to 
seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint 
the most Holy. And after threescore and 
two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not 
for himself,” Dan. ix. 24. 26. 

Thus it was foretold, that the promised ben¬ 
efactor of the human race should be a de¬ 
scendant of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of 
Judah, of Jesse, of David—that he should be 
born at Bethlehem; that he should rise in 
the midst of poverty and depression; that he 
should be distinguished by meekness and 
gentleness; should perform the most illus¬ 
trious miracles; should be rejected by those 
he attempted to benefit; should intercede 
for transgression; should without complain¬ 
ing be put to death; should make his grave 
with the rich; and should appear while the 
second temple stood, and before Daniel’s 
seventy weeks expired. However the ene¬ 
mies of Jesus may account for the fact, they 
cannot disprove that all these particulars 
met in him. Tacitus,Suetonius, and Josephus 
record, that about the time of his coming, 
some great personage was expected to arise 
in the East. The genealogy of the Lord^s 
human ancestors, tracing his descent to Da¬ 
vid, to Jesse, to Judah, to Jacob, to Isaae, to 


92 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


Abraham, was published by his disciples 
among their foes; if incorrect why did not 
the Jews who crucified him disprove it, when 
their genealogies existed, and they had every 
opportunity for detecting falsehood? His 
birth at Bethlehem was a notorious fact: that 
he was poor and despised none denied; it 
was the subject of their reproach. If he were 
not, as his friends declare, distinguished for 
meekness and gentleness, why did not his 
enemies detect a falsehood respecting him ? 
That he performed the most illustrious mira¬ 
cles has been already evinced; that he was 
rejected needs no proof. The other circum¬ 
stances connected with his death were of so 
public a nature, that if the narration of his 
disciples had been incorrect, his enemies 
might immediately have exposed their false 
representation. He appeared while that 
which Josephus expressly represents as the 
second temple stood; and at whatever year 
Daniel’s seventy weeks of years, (or 490 
years,) may be reckoned to commence, he 
came before that period had expired. Look 
through all history, and see if it be possible 
to fix on another person in whom these pre¬ 
dictions, which are but a few out of the many 
that refer to the Messiah, meet. It is impos¬ 
sible to find one. How then could they 
meet in him but because he was the person 
to whom they pointed? Whatever human 
sagacity may do, it cannot with certainty 
fortell one future event, much less can it 
trace, through successive generation's, the de- 




OF CHRISTIANITY. 


93 


scent of an individual, not to be born for 
many ages; describe his character, and point 
to a number of circumstances in his life. Yet 
this is done, in the Old Testament, respect¬ 
ing some distinguished individual; and there 
is abundant evidence that Jesus Christ is 
that individual, and thus is the Son of God. 

6. The prophecies respecting the reign of 
that great Benefactor, of whom the Old Tes¬ 
tament makes such frequent mention, and 
who is denominated the Messiah, are not Jess 
remarkable, than those which refer to his 
person; and have this peculiarity that the 
accomplishment of them is evident before our 
eyes. This no sophistry can confute, no ef¬ 
frontery disprove. 

The Jews, it is well known, were a nation 
peculiarly distinct from other nations. They 
were influenced by a spirit entirely sectarian. , 
Other nations despised them, and they, on 
their part, despised other nations, looked on 
them as common, and unclean, and on them¬ 
selves as the peculiar people of the God of 
heaven. Yet when the whole world, except¬ 
ing Judea, lay sunk in idolatry, when Greece 
and Rome, with all their refinements, were 
worshipping their thousand idols, or even 
before Grecian and Roman grandeur and civ¬ 
ilization existed, Jewish prophets foretold 
that other nations would forsake their idols; 
would become the worshippers of -the God 
the Jews adored; would be gathered into his 
fold: and that his fold among them would 
be more extensive, and more favored than 


§4 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


ever was that of the Jewish nation. The 
predictions are in the hands of the Jews; 
the accomplishment is not mere matter of 
history—it is before you: read the predic¬ 
tions. 

cc In the last days it shall come to pass, 
that the mountain of the house of the Lord 
shall be established in the top of the moun¬ 
tains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; 
and people shall flow unto it. And many 
nations shall come, and say, Come, and let 
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to 
the house of the God of Jacob; and he will 
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths,” Mic. iv. 1, 2. 

“ Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, 
and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a wo¬ 
man forget her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion on the son of her womb? 
yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget 
thee. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I 
will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and 
setup my standard to the people: and they 
shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy 
daughters shall be carried upon their shoul¬ 
ders,” Isa. xlix. 14, 15, 22. 

Ct Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou 
knowest not, and nations that know not thee 
shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy 
God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he 
hath glorified thee,” Isa. Iv. 5. 

“Hearken unto me, my people; and give 
ear unto me, 0 my nation: for a law shall 
proceed from me, and I will make myjudg- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. 95 

ment to rest for a light of the people/’ Isa. 
li. 4. 

cc Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and 
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, 
behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, 
and gross darkness the people: but the Lord 
shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be 
seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come 
to thy light, and kings to the brightness of 
thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, 
and see: all they gather themselves together, 
they come to thee: thy sons shall come from 
far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at 
thy side. Then thou shalt see, and flow to¬ 
gether, and thine heart shall fear, and be en¬ 
larged; because the abundance of the sea 
shall be converted unto thee, the forces of 
the Gentiles shall come unto thee,” Isa. lx. 
1—5. 

“ I am sought of them that asked not for 
me; I am found of them that sought me not: 
I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation 
that was not called by my name,” Isa. Ixv. 1. 

“ 0 Lord, my strength, and my fortress, 
and my refuge in the day of affliction, the 
Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends 
of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers 
have inherited lies,vanity,and things where¬ 
in there is no profit,” Jer. xvi. 19. 

“ I will have mercy upon her that had not 
obtained mercy; and I will say to them 
which were not my people, Thou art my 
people; and they shall say, Thou art my 
God,” Hos. ii. 23. 


96 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


“ Many nations shall be joined to the 
Lord,” Zech. ii. 11. 

“ From the rising of the sun even unto 
the going down of the same, my name shall 
be great among the Gentiles; and in every 
place incense shall be offered unto my name, 
and a pure offering: for my name shall be 
great among the heathen, saith the Lord of 
hosts,” Mai. 1. 11. 

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear 
break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou 
that didst not travail with child : for more 
are the children of the desolate than the 
children of the married wife, saith the Lord. 
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them 
stretch forth the curtains of thine habita¬ 
tions: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and 
strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break 
forth on the right hand and on the left; and 
thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles,and make 
the desolate cities to be inhabited,” Isa. liv. 
1—S. 

Behold before you the accomplishment of 
these predictions. Look at Europe; its 
systems of idolatry have long since passed 
away; its idols are forgotten. Millions, in¬ 
deed, are careless of all religion, but by mil¬ 
lions the Bible is revered; the book that in¬ 
structed the Jews three thousand years ago, 
instructs them; and the God that was ador¬ 
ed by the prophet who uttered the predic¬ 
tions, is the God they worship. Look at 
their numbers, how much more numerous 
are the Gentiles who have renounced idol- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 97 

atry and worship God, than the descendants 
of Abraham ever were! 

7. As it was predicted that the Gentiles 
would become worshippers of God, so it was 
also predicted that they would become the 
subjects of the promised Messiah. This was 
«ti additional event. Idolatry might have 
been renounced without Christianity being 
embraced; but Christ was to be their light, 
or to communicate to them the knowledge of 
sacred truth; that light was to spring up in 
Jerusalem, and thence to be diffused to other 
lands. To the promised Deliverer,it was also 
foretold, the Gentiles would seek, and to him 
submit. Among many predictions on these 
subjects are the following: “Yet have I set 
my king upon my holy hill of Zion. Ask of 
me, and I shall give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
the earth for thy possession, 55 Psa. ii. 6. 8. 
“ Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine 
elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have 
put my spirit upon him: he shall bringforth 
judgment to the Gentiles. I the Lord have 
called thee in righteousness, and I will hold 
thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee 
for a covenant of the people, for a light of the 
Gentiles, 55 Isa. xlii. 1. 6. ‘* It is a light 
thing that thou sholdest be my servant to 
raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore 
the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee 
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest 
be my salvation unto the end of the earth, 55 
Isa-, xlix. 6. “ Behold I have given him fer 





THE DIVINE ORKSIN 


98 

a witness to the people, a leader and com¬ 
mander to the people,” Isa. lv. 4. “ And in 

that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which 
shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it 
shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be 
glorious,” Isa. xi. 10. “ Out of Zion shall go 
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from 
Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the 
nations, and shall rebuke many people,” Isa. 
ii. 3, 4. “ Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, 

saying, Behold the man whose name is the 
Branch; and he shall grow up out of his 
place, and he shall build the temple of the 
Lord: even he shall build the temple of the 
Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall 
sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be 
a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of 
peace shall be between them both,” Zech. 
vi. 12, 13. “ I saw in the night visions, and, 
behold, one like the Son of man came with 
the clouds of heaven, and come to the An¬ 
cient of days, and they brought him near 
before him. And there was given him do¬ 
minion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
people, nations, and languages, should serve 
him: his dominion is an everlasting domin¬ 
ion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,” 
Dan. vii. 13, 14. 

Whether you love or reject Christianity, 
can you possibly deny the accomplishment of 
these predictions? The accomplishment is 
full and clear,>as the light of day. It comes 
to a matter-of-fact question, Have the events 


GT CHRISTIANITY. 


99 


foretold taken place or have they not? Have 
the idolatrous systems that once governed 
Europe, and some other lauds, vanished 
away? They have. This none deny. What 
exterminated them? Science, philosophy? 
No, not in a single village. It was the light 
of Christianity fulfilling the prediction, “1 
have set Thee for a light to the Gentiles.’* 
Where did the light of Christianity arise? 
Not at Rome, not at Athens, the seats of 
ancient refinement and science; hut, as pro¬ 
phecy predicted, at Jerusalem. To whom 
have the nations, that have thus been brought 
to worship the God of heaven instead of the 
idols of their ancestors, sought? To whom 
have they professed subjection? and though, 
also, with respect to multitudes, that profes¬ 
sion has been mere profession, yet to whom 
have the truly devout in those various nations 
actually yielded the subjection of the heart? 
To Jesus Christ. They have professed his 
religion, they have borne his name, they have 
submitted to his laws. Millions have suffer¬ 
ed every extremity of affliction rather than re¬ 
nounce allegiance to him; and millions more 
have, doubtless, been actuated by the same 
spirit, though not actually summoned to 
the same sufferings. 

8. The great Benefactor, whose appear¬ 
ance the prophets predicted, was to be a 
blessing to the nations. This is expressed 
at times in plain words, and at other times 
by the most glowing poetical images. “In 
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth b« 


100 


THE DIVINE ORIGIfif 


blessed,” Gen. xxii. 18. “Men shall b& 
blessed in him, all nations shall call him 
blessed,” Psa. Ixxii. 17. “ The wilderness 

and the solitary place shall be glad for them; 
and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as 
the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and 
rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory 
of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the ex¬ 
cellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall 
see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency 
of our God,” Isa. xxxv. 1,2. “The wolf 
also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leop¬ 
ard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf 
and the young lion and the fatling together; 
and a little child shall lead them. And the 
cow and the bear shall feed; their young 
ones shall lie down together; and the lion 
shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking 
child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
the weaned child shall put his hand on the 
cockatrice’den. They shall not hurt nor 
destroy in all my holy mountain: for the 
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” Isa. xi. 
6—9. “ For the Lord shall comfort Zion : he 
will comfort all her waste places; and he will 
make her wilderness like Eden, and her 
desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and 
gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, 
and the voice of melody,” Isa. li.3. “And 
he shall judge among the nations, and shall 
rebuke many people; and they shall heat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears 
into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


101 


sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more,** Isa. ii. 4. The reader may 
further peruse all the sixtieth chapter <>f Isa. 

The Lord Jesus Christ and his religion 
has been a blessing to the nations. The en¬ 
lightened Christian will ever esteem the spir¬ 
itual good which the gospel communicates 
as its most important good; yet, independent 
of that, the religion of the Lord Jesus has 
been a blessing to mankind. Paley remarks, 
with not more perspicuity than truth, “ The 
effects of Christianity have been important. 
It has mitigated the conduct of war, and the 
treatment of captives. It has softened the 
administration of despotic or of nominally 
despotic governments. It has abolished polyg¬ 
amy. It has restrained the licentiousness 
of divorces. It has put an end to the expo¬ 
sure of children, and the immolation of slaves. 
It has suppressed the combats of gladiators,* 
and the impurities of religious rites. It has 
banished if not unnatural vices, at least the 
toleration of them. It has greatly meliorated 
the condition of the laborious part, that is to 
say, of the mass of every community, by 
procuring for them a day of weekly rest. In 
all countries in which it is professed, it has 
produced numerous establishments for the 
relief of sickness and poverty; and in some 
a regular and general provision by law. It 
has triumphed over the slavery established in 

* Lips ius affirms that thesa shows sometimes e#st 20,000 er 
30,000 lives in a month ; and women as well as meu weja 
passionately fond of them. 


102 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


the Roman empire: it is contending, and, I 
trust, will one day prevail against the worse 
slavery of the West Indies.” 

Had any distinguished patriot effected all 
this, how would he have been held up to 
universal admiration as the greatest bene¬ 
factor of mankind! All this Christianity 
has done; yet this is but a small part of what 
it has effected. Its best effects are visible in 
the holiness and happiness diffused among 
many in the retired scenes of private life; in 
the peace that cheers thousands of chambers 
of affliction, and the hope that animates 
myriads when sinking into the grave. It is 
freely acknowledged that the whole language 
of prophecy, on the blessings of Christ’s 
reign, has not yet been accomplished; but 
then it is to be recollected, the full accom¬ 
plishment is represented as taking place when 
the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the 
earth as the waters cover the sea; then, and 
not till then, may be expected the complete 
fulfillment of the prophecies respecting Mes¬ 
siah’s reign. To expect that the world 
should enjoy all the blessings of his reign 
while but a part of that world is subjected to 
his sway, would be as absurd as to expect a 
harvest from the whole of a field of which 
but a part was cultivated. 

9. The prophets of the Old Testament al¬ 
so predicted, that the kingdom which was 
thus to be established under Him whom they 
represented as the great hope and deliverer 
of the human race, was to be an everlasting 


OP CHRISTIANITT. 


103 


kingdom. The period of time in which it 
was to commence was marked out; that mere 
human power was not to establish it, was 
distinctly asserted; and that its duration was 
to be forever. “ In the days of those kings 
(the Roman empire)shall the God of heaven 
set up a kingdom which shall never be de¬ 
stroyed; and it shall stand forever,” Dan. ii. 
44. The stone mentioned in verse 34, which 
represents this kingdom, is described as cut 
out without hands, that is, established by 
divine not human power, as the phrase “not 
made with hands” is used 2 Cor. v. 1.— 
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is 
given: and the government shall be upon 
his shoulder: and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, 
The everlasting Father, The Prince of 
Peace. Of the increase of his government 
and peace there shall be no end, upon the 
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to 
order it, and to establish it with judgment 
and with justice, from henceforth even for 
ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will per¬ 
form this,” Isa. ix.6, 7. “ His dominion is 

an everlasting dominion,which shall not pass 
away, and his kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed,” Dan. vii. 14. “ His seed 

shall endure forever, and his throne as the 
sun before me. It shall be established for¬ 
ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in 
heaven,” Psa. lxxxix. 36, 37. “ His name 

shall endure forever: his name shall be con¬ 
tinued as long as the sun: and men shall be 


104 


THE DIVINE ORiaiB 


blessed in him: all nations shall call hirn 
blessed,” Psa. lxxii. 17. “ In a little wrath 

I hid my face from thee for a moment; but 
with everlasting kindness will I have mercy 
on thee,sait.h the Lord thy Redeemer. For the 
mountains shall depart, and the hills be re¬ 
moved; but my kindness shall not depart 
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my 
peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath 
mercy on thee. No weapon that is formed 
against thee shall prosper; and every tongue 
that shall rise against thee in judgment thou 
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the 
servants of the Lord, and their righteousness 
is of me, saith the Lord,” Isa. liv. 8. 10 17. 

In the establishment and preservation of 
Christianity wc see all this fulfilled. During 
the time of the fourth great empire, or of the 
Roman power, this kingdom arose. It was 
not established by human power; the power 
and riches of the world were long united for 
its destruction. Nor was it raised by the 
science or wealth of its first members. The 
unlettered fishermen of Galilee had neither 
wealth nor science. But God declared ho 
would set up the kingdom, ami by miracles 
and miraculous gifts, and displays of divine 
power, he accomplished his promise. For 
eighteen hundred years has Christianity ex¬ 
isted. You see it before you, a standing 
monument of the truth of the prophecies, 
which declared its rise and its imperishable 
nature. The spiritual kingdom of Christ 
exists and flourishes, notwithstanding all tha 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


105 


exertions that,through successive ages, thou¬ 
sands of enemies have employed to effect its 
subversion. For three hundred years it was 
exposed to the assaults of heathen persecu¬ 
tors,yet prospered in the midst of opposition, 
till, heathenism itself fell before its power. 
For many hundred years more, the super¬ 
stitions and persecutions of the Romish anti¬ 
christ aimed at Christianity a more deadly 
wound, but, though depressed, the kingdom, 
the church of Christ, still existed. In later 
times, infidelity has assaulted Christianity 
with unremitting hostility, and employe*! 
every art and every weapon for its destruc¬ 
tion,till at one time, as is well known, French 
infidels anticipated a final conquest. And 
does Christianity now seem less likely to 
prevail than in ages past? Does the king¬ 
dom of Christ seem tottering to decay? Let 
facts answer. Look at North America. Be¬ 
hold among its energetic population, millions 
binding the gospel to their hearts, and intent 
on the enlargement of Christ’s spiritual 
kingdom. Look at Britian, and though 
there is much of merely nominal Christianity 
here, yet, behold a multitude, which no man 
can number, to whom Christianity is dear¬ 
er than any earthly good, and who are la¬ 
boring to promote its reign, not merely in 
their own country, but to the uttermost parts 
of the earth. Look at Europe, and see not 
merely many devoted to Christ, but see bible 
societies spreading the Christian scriptures 
over various parts of the continent, and eveu 


106 


THB DIVINE ORIGIN 


diffusing them from houses or from cities 
where infidelity once held its reign, and fear¬ 
ed no overthrow. Look at the efforts now 
making to spread Christianity through the 
world, so that missionaries, bibles, and 
tracts are gone, or going, to almost every 
nation; while, probably, not less than five 
hundred thousand pounds are annually ex¬ 
pended in these sacred enterprises. Let all 
this answer the question, Is Christianity los¬ 
ing or gaining ground? 

10. The question now is, not whether 
these things are right or wrong, though a- 
niong Christians,on that subject, there can be 
but one opinion, but it is, Are these things 
facts? facts visible to every eye?—If they 
are, in this is prophecy accomplished before 
our view; and predictions, uttered more than 
two thousand years ago, are fulfilled in our 
sight. Whether you approve of Christianity 
or dislike it, the appeal now is to matter of 
fact. It is a fact, that the Jewish prophets 
did foretell the advent of some extraordinary 
person, who was to be an eminent benefac¬ 
tor to mankind. The Jews, the enemies of 
Christ, are our witnesses to this. It is an 
equally indisputable fact, that at the time ex¬ 
pected, Jesus Christ professed to be that per¬ 
son; and that many circumstances connected 
with him exactly agreed with those predic¬ 
tions. It is a fact, that the Jewish prophets 
predicted the conversion of Gentile nations 
from idolatry to the worship of the one living 
and true God. It is equally a fact, that that 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


107 


event has taken place. It is a fact, that those 
Jewish prophets also predicted, that the na¬ 
tions thus converted from idolatry would be 
so, through the religion of the great Deliv¬ 
erer, of whom they spoke; and that those 
nations would avow subjection to him. It 
is equally a fact, that it is Christianity which 
subverted Grecian and Roman idolatry, and 
that the nations rescued from such supersti¬ 
tion, have avowed themselves the subjects of 
Christ. It is a fact, that the prophets fore¬ 
told, that his kingdom once established, 
should never be destroyed, and it is an 
equally obvious fact, that in spite ofevery 
effort used for its subversion, Christianity 
exists ; that multitudes glory in if; bow to 
Christ in willing subjection, and yield to him 
the homage of adoring and devoted hearts. 
These are facts, which cannot, with any 
appearance of reason, be denied. How, then, 
were all these facts foretold, some of them 
much more than three thousand years ago, 
all of them considerably more than two thou¬ 
sand; how, except from the inspiration of 
that God, to whom Christianity directs the 
soul? Nothing parallel to this, excepting 
in other prophecies ofthe bible,is to he found 
in the history of the human race. We pos¬ 
sess many ancient writings, whose authors 
have long been held in high esteem, but 
these writings contain no predictions of 
events to take [dace thousands of years af¬ 
ter the writer’s death. We behold many e- 
vants of considerable importance taking 


108 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


place, amidst the agitations of this world, 
but we can look to no ancient record, and 
say, These momentous events are here fore¬ 
told. Only where the kingdom,the cause,and 
the book of God are concerned, can we find 
such predictions uttered, and thus trace their 
fulfillment. 

Should an unbeliever say, These predic¬ 
tions were but lucky conjectures of the 
prophets; the supposition is entirely absurd. 
Previous to the coming of Christ, not one 
instance can be pointed out in which an idol¬ 
atrous nation had voluntarily renounced 
idolatry. Nation after nation had been sink¬ 
ing deeper and deeper in that foolish su¬ 
perstition, but none forsaking its abomina¬ 
tions. There was nothing, therefore, in all 
history, or in the whole appearance of the 
world to lead a prophet to suspect, that ma¬ 
ny nations would forsake idolatry. But if a 
conjecture of this kind had been ventured as 
a prediction, yet to point out that this renun¬ 
ciation of idolatry should take place, in con¬ 
nection with the authority and instructions 
of an individual, not to be born for many 
ages ; that this individual should be a bless¬ 
ing to the nations ; and that his dominion 
once established should defy every effort to 
effect its subversion, was indeed an utter im¬ 
possibility. A sensible writer has drawn 
out various opinions of deists in what he de¬ 
scribes as the deist’s creed , of which the 
conclusion is, “ Finally I believe in all un¬ 
belief;” and he who can believe, that such 


Or CHRISTIANITY. 


109 


a series of predictions closely connected with 
each other, and all visibly accomplished, 
were but the lucky conjectures of impostors, 
may to, “ I believe in all unbelief,” add, I 
believe every absurdity to be reasonable, and 
every impossibility easy. 

11. The predictions of our Lord and his 
apostles have been accomplished in as won¬ 
derful a manner as those of the former 
prophets. Some of the prophecies of the 
Lord Jesus referred to his disciples, others 
to his enemies. To his friends he said, “ Ye 
shall be hated ofall men for my name’s sake;” 
and told them that parents would become 
enemies to their children, and children to 
their parents, on account of his religion, and 
that a man’s foes should be those of his own 
household. How harmless is a name, yet in 
after ages the name of Christian was suffi¬ 
cient to ensure martyrdom to multitudes who 
bore it. No reader of ecclesiastical history 
can be ignorant of this fact. Tertullian, in 
his Apology* observes: “ If a Christian is 
accused of no crime, the name surely must 
be of a strange nature to be criminal in it¬ 
self;” he adds, “ Some are arrived to that 
pitch of aversion to the very name of Chris¬ 
tian, that they seem to have entered into cov¬ 
enant with hatred, and bargained to gratify 
this passion at the expense of all the satis¬ 
factions of human life, acquiescing in the 
grossest of injuries, rather than the hated 

* Tertullian’s Apology, c. iii. The apology was probably 
wraiten about A. D. 200. 


HO 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


thing of Christian should come within their 
doors. The husband, now cured of all his 
former jealousy by his wife’s conversion to 
Christianity, turns her and her new modesty 
out of doors together,choosing to dwell with 
an adulteress,sooner than a Christian: the fa¬ 
ther, so tender of the undutiful son in his 
Gentile state, disinherits him now, when he 
becomes obedient by becoming a Christian: 
the master, heretofore so good to his unfaith¬ 
ful slave, discards him now upon his fidelity 
and his religion. So that the husband had 
rather have his wife false, the father his son 
a rebel, the master his servant a rogue, than 
Christians and good: so much is the hatred 
of our name, above all the advantages of vir¬ 
tue flowing from it. 

“ Now, therelore, if all this odium arises 
purely on account of our name, tell me how 
a poor name comes to be thus to blame, or a 
simple word to be a criminal. Before w ? e 
give entertainment to hatred against any sect, 
whatever,upon account of its name,we ought 
in the first place to examine the nature of the 
institution, and trace out its qualities from 
the author, or the author from them; but both 
these wavs of inquiry are quite neglected; 
and our enemies storm and fire at a word 
only. Our heavenly Master, and his heav¬ 
enly religion, are both unknown, and both 
condemned, without any other considera¬ 
tion, but that of the bare name of Chris¬ 
tian.” 

Our divine Lord also forewarned his dis- 



OF CHRISTIANITY. * 111 

ciples that they might expect all manner of 
evil to be said against them falsely for his 
name’s sake. This too received a dreadful 
accomplishment. The basest lies that hell 
itself could invent were circulated respecting 
the primitive disciples. They were said to 
indulge even in their religious assemblies in 
lewdness and incest, and abominations too 
dark to be named; to worship the head of an 
ass, and to initiate fresh converts at a meal, 
when they murdered an infant, and licked up 
his blood.* What but the spirit of proph¬ 
ecy enabled the blessed Jesus thus to predict 
the treatment his disciples were to experi¬ 
ence for ages after his departure from the 
world! Would an impostor have uttered 
such predictions? Would he have said, All 
men shall hate you, scandalize you, per¬ 
secute you, and think they do God service 
when they kill you on my account? This is 
not the encouragement that impostors hold 
out to their disciples. 

12. With respect to his enemies,our Lord’s 
prophecies were not less express. He fore¬ 
told that many false prophets should arise 
and deceive many ; that there should be 
wars and rumors of wars ; famines, pesti¬ 
lences, earthquakes; that the abomination of 
desolation should stand in the holy place; the 
eagles be gathered where the carcasses was; 
the time for these things be a period of the 
greatest tribulation, Matt. xxiv. ; that Jeru¬ 
salem should be compassed with armies; that 
* Bee Tertullian, Minueiu* Felix, 


• THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


m 

signs in heaven should precede its destruc¬ 
tion; that of the temple, one stone should not 
be left upon another; that the Jews should 
fall by the edge of the sword, and be led a- 
way captive into all nations; and Jerusalem 
be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times 
of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The holy scrip¬ 
tures contain these prophecies, but not the 
slightest allusion to their accomplishment.— 
The account of the fulfillment of these pre¬ 
dictions is furnished by Tacitus, Josephus, 
&c. From the latter we learn, that various 
impostors, professing to be the Christ or 
Messiah arose, who deluded multitudes; that 
famines, insurrections, wars, and rumors of 
wars, earthquakes, and pestilence, afflicted 
Judea or the neighboring parts. Owing to 
a solemn festival, the carcass, or body of the 
Jewish nation, was at Jerusalem, when that 
guilty city was surrounded by the Roman 
armies; these bore the eagle as their stand¬ 
ard; and thus fulfilled the prediction; Where 
the carcass is, there shall the eagles be gath¬ 
ered together. While the Romans besieged 
the city, famine and pestilence made horri¬ 
ble ravages among its inhabitants. Eleven 
hundred thousand persons were destroyed by 
these or by the sword, and the city was ta¬ 
ken. Ninety-seven thousand captives were 
taken during the war, some of whom were 
sent to the works in Egypt; and others dis¬ 
tributed as presents through the Roman prov¬ 
inces, to perish by the sword, or wild beasts 
in their theatres. Titus wished to preserve 


Or CHBISTIANITT. 


113 

the temple, but in vain, for he could not re* 
strain the fury of his own soldiers. Not 
one of its stones was left upon another. The 
Romans destroyed the houses, and dug up 
the walls. So that Josephus introduces a 
Jew as saying, Where is our great city? It 
is altogether rooted up, and torn up from its 
foundations. Josephus also mentions fear¬ 
ful sights and signs that occurred, and in his 
history gives an awful and affecting testimo¬ 
ny to the truth of our Lord’s predictions, 
though such was by no means his design.— 
One of the Lord’s predictions respecting the 
Jews is at this day receiving its fulfillment.— 
Though nearly eighteen hundred years have 
elapsed since the destruction of Jerusalem, 
it has never been restored to its former own¬ 
ers. It is still trodden down by the Gen¬ 
tiles.* 

13. The New Testament contains predic¬ 
tions respecting many other events, some of 
which are fulfilled, others are fulfilling, and 
o hers wait for their accomplishment in a 
future age. Among the most remarkable of 
these, are the prophecies relating to the Ro¬ 
man Catholic church. Who that beheld the 
firmness, the labors, the piety of the first 
Christians, could have imagined that such a 
total defection from the faith as afterwards 
existed, would take place among the profes¬ 
sors of the gospel ? Yet, at that very time, 

* For a highly interesting account of the accomplishment 
of these, and all the other scripture ptophecies alluded to 
in this scotiop, see Newton on the Prophecies. 

S 


114 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


the apostles foretold a dreadful and general 
cpostacy. 

The apostle Paul prophesied of this apos¬ 
tasy, or falling away; and that the man of 
sin should be revealed, who opposeth and 
exalteth himself above all that is called God, 
or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sit- 
teth in the temple of God, showing himself 
that he is God; whose coming is after the 
working of Satan, with all power, and signs, 
and lying wonders, 2 Thess. ii. 3,4. 9. Speak¬ 
ing of the same apostasy, in another epistle, 
he adds, “ Now the spirit speaketh expressly 
that in the latter times, some shall depart 
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spir¬ 
its and doctrines of de\ils, (or doctrines con¬ 
cerning demons,) speaking lies in hypocricy, 
having their conscience seared with a hot 
iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding 
to abstain from meats,” &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1, 
2, 3. 

The apostasy predicted by the apostle 
Paul spread over the greater part of the 
Christian world. The man of sin, or the 
popes in succession, sat in the temple or 
church of God, as an infallible ruler, annul¬ 
ling even the decrees of the Most High, al¬ 
tering his ordinances, and forbidding to the 
people generally the use of his word. To 
the popes also have been impiously applied 
the very names and attributes of God. He 
has been styled, “ Our Lord God the pope; 
another God upon earth; King of kings, and 
Lord of lords. The same is the dominion 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


115 


of God anil the pone. To believe that our 
Lord God the pope might not decree as he 
decreed, it were a matter of heresy. The 
power of the pope is greater than all created 
power, and extends itself to things celestial, 
terrestrial, and infernal. The pope doeth 
whatsoever he listeth, even things infernal, 
and is more than God.” # Does the apostle 
foretell the signs and lying wonders of the 
antichristian power? it is a notorious fact 
that the church of Rome has been supported 
by various impostures, and feigned miracles 
or lying wonders, which are professedly 
wrought even to the present time; as the 
liquefy ing once a year of the blood of St. 
Januarius at Naples, &c. Does the apostle 
mention their giving heed to doctrines of 
devils ? (or, perhaps, more properly about 
demons.) This has been fulfilled by the 
idolatrous worship of images and saints in 
the Romish church; for demons, the original 
word, was not always, by the ancients, taken 
in the sense of devils, but meant beings of a 
middle class between God and men. Speak¬ 
ing lies in hypocricy .—This has been fulfill¬ 
ed in the pious or rather impious frauds of 
the Roman Church, and in their well-known 
tenet that no faith was to he kept with here¬ 
tics— which, though doubtless rejected and 
abhorred bv many Roman Catholics now, 
was too often acted upon in darker ages. By 
them the professors of the gospel were, in 
many instances, treacherously beguiled and 
* £o« Newton oil the Prophe&ies, Dissertation XXII. 


116 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


afterwards destroyed. Forbidding to marry. 
—God savs marriage is honorable in all. 
The Romish church forbids it to all its 
priests; and evidently would sooner con¬ 
nive at their cohabiting with concubines, 
than allow them to marry virtuous women; 
multitudes of their priests have done this, 
and the popes themselves have been fathers 
of illegitimate sons and daughters, whom 
they have termed nephews and nieces. Com - 
mandin g to abstain from meats .—This is an¬ 
other well-known part of the popish system. 
On certain days, or certain parts of the year, 
the use of meat is forbidden, and by a thor¬ 
ough catholic, in some countries, on such a 
day it would be esteemed a greater sin to 
eat flesh, than to murder his protestant 
neighbor. In the Revelation, the apostle 
John speaks fully of the same power, which 
he represents as drunk with the blood of the 
martyrs. The persecutions which true 
Christians have endured from the Romish 
church are well known. Millions have been 
martyred. Some suppose that not less than 
fifty millions of persons have in different 
ways fallen victims to the persecuting spirit 
of the church of Rome; certainly the num¬ 
ber has been exceedingly great. Among 
other particulars respecting the sufferings of 
some of these victims, it was foretold that 
no man might buy or sell, save he that had 
the mark of the beast. History informs us 
that edicts were published at different times, 
forbidding any traffic, any selling or buying 


OF CHRISTIANITT. 


117 


to take place with the Waldenses and Albi- 
genses, those early witnesses for the truth. 
Amidst all the corruptions thus foretold, and 
the sufferings which the professors of the truth 
were to undergo, it was still declared that 
the church of Christ should preserve its 
existence, though in a state of depression 
and deep distress. This too has been ac¬ 
complished. When popery commanded ihe 
wealth and power of the world, and hesita 
ted not to murder its millions, still it could 
not utterly root out the church of Jesus.— 
It massacred multitudes, hut others still a- 
rose; if exterminated in ope place, they ap¬ 
peared in another. At length poperv, after 
triumphing for eiurht or ten centuries, re¬ 
ceived, at the Reformation, a wound which 
has never been healed. And the efforts now 
making to circulate the scriptures, and 
preach the gospel to every nation, furnish 
reason for believing that the period is ap¬ 
proaching when Christianity shall become 
the religion of the world, and all supersti¬ 
tious systems be destroyed by the brightness 
of the Redeemer’s coming, in the universal 
diffusion and complete triumph of his gos¬ 
pel. 

Whence hut from heaven did all these 
prophecies descend ? No book upon earth ex¬ 
cept the hi hie, contains such a series of pre¬ 
dictions, whose truth has been manifested by 
their literal accomplishment. Whence bad 
the writers this knowledge of futurity? It 
could he given them by none hut God; and 


113 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


the accomplishment of so many remarkable 
prophecies, of which those respecting the 
Arabs, the Jews, the conversion of the Gen¬ 
tiles, and the Romish church are at this time 
fulfilling before our eyes, decisively proves 
that the prophets of the Old Testament, and 
the Lord Jesus and his apostles were the 
inspired messengers of the Most High.* 

* The remarks in sections 1, 2. 3, 4, II, 12, 13. of this 
chapter, aie extracted from Newton on the Prophecies, to 
which the reader is recommended, for a full and interesting 
ilhisUation of the important subject ofprophecy. What is 
here attempted is a brief and very imperfect view, yet, brief 
anil imperfect as it is, the wiiter introduces it fioni a persua¬ 
sion flint it may instiuct and edify some who have not access 
to larger works. See, for some Anther illustrations of tSi.o 
fulfillment of prophecy. Keith’s Evidence of Prophecy, pub¬ 
lished by the Religious Tract Society. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


119 


CHAPTER IV. 

The ‘practical tendency of Christianity , an 
infallible proof of its Divine origin. 

1. The zirgument proposed—2. The tendency of 
Christianity to promote exalted views of God, 
proved by quotations from the New Testament— 
3. Similar proof of its tendency to repress evil; 
and —4. To promote the most elevated holiness— 
5. By motives of a description peculiarly its own, 
and of the most powerful and elevating kind—6. 
A view of the effect that would be produced, 
if the precepts introduced in the preceding sec¬ 
tions were universally obeyed—7. The argument 
pursued, and the conclusion established, that 
Christianity is divine—8. An objection answered, 
and the argument further illustrated—9. A pecu¬ 
liar kind of internal evidence for Christianity 
pointed out. 

1. A very strong, indeed an overwhelm¬ 
ing, proof of the divinity of Christianity 
springs from its holy and benevolent nature. 
The more any person imbibes the spirit of 
the gospel, the more deeply will the force of 
this argument be felt. 

Were a skilful artist invited to form a 
judgment respecting some complicated piece 
of machinery : were he, for that purpose, to 
enter a silk-mill or a cotton-mill, and, instead 
of finding the whole machine in action, to 
find but a small part of it at work, he would 
not estimate the value'of tho machine from 


120 THE DIVINE ORIGIN 

what he saw it performing, but from what, h© 
would perceive it designed and fitted to per¬ 
form. The principle on which the artist in 
this case would form his judgment, is a prin¬ 
ciple carried into the most important concerns 
of human life. In a court of justice how 
much is attributed to design ! is a man ar¬ 
raigned as a murderer, for slaying his fellow 
man, if it he proved that he had no design to 
kill, what jury would convict him? Has an¬ 
other set fire to a house., and the flames 
spread and burnt down a town? if it he 
proved that he did it accidentally, and with¬ 
out design, he is esteemed an innocent man. 
On the other hand, has a man assaulted his 
neighbor, and really done him little injury, 
but designed to kill him? this man, if an in¬ 
tention to kill is fully proved at tlie bar of 
justice, is in the eye of the law a murderer, 
and as a murderer he must suffer. The same 
principle acts with all its force in a thousand 
other instances. Has a friend greatly injur¬ 
ed me, yet am I convinced he truly designed 
as much good as he has done harm? I should 
think of his design, and not love him less 
than before. Has another bestowed some 
great benefit on me, yet am I convinced he 
meant me no kindness? In that case I should 
feel no gratitude, for I should think of his 
design. Now let us bring Christianity to 
trial upon this principle. Let us inquire, 
not what it has done, though on this much 
might be said, but what it appears designed 
and fitted to do. This is the only way of 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


1 21 


forming a fair judgment respecting its claims. 
We cannot possibly form a just estimate of 
Christianity, by viewing a world of which 
the greater part are strangers to its influence; 
nor by surveying the conduct of those, who, 
though termed Christians, really refuse to 
imbibe its dispositions, to submit to its pre¬ 
cepts, and to follow its directions. Were 
wolves to assume the name of lambs, we 
could not judge of the disposition of a lamb, 
by looking at a wolf. We cannot, it may be 
added, form a just estimate of Christianity, 
even by contemplating it as displayed in its 
most sincere disciples, for they are the rirst 
to acknowledge that they fall far short of 
what their religion demands; that their piety 
is, as it were, in a weak and sickly state. 
Who that wished to paint a just likeness of 
the human form, would go to an hospital, 
and draw the picture of sufferers that hail 
lost a leg or an arm; or who were withered 
with the palsy, or burnt, with fever, or wast¬ 
ed away by consumption? Christianity is 
professedly designed as a religion for all 
mankind. Now, as to form a just opinion 
respecting the nature and [towers of man, 
we must see him in health; so to know what 
Christianity is, we must consider what is its 
design, and wbat would be its effects, if all 
the w orld were subjected to its influence, and 
every human being fully under its power. 
We now see a few parts cf the Christian ma¬ 
chine in action. To see it all in motion, we 
must behold it reigning with a sovereign 


122 


THE .DIVINE ORIGIN 


sway in every human heart. For this it is 
designed; but this we cannot see; yet we 
may form a fair estimate of its nature, by 
considering what would be the effects were 
it thus brought into full and universal action. 
No other estimate of Christianity can lie fair 
and impartial. For if we survey human 
corruptions, these do not spring from Chris¬ 
tianity, it fori ids all corruption. If we sur¬ 
vey the defects of sincere Christians; these 
are not caused by the religion they have, but 
by the want of more: they spring ftorn the 
evil which Christianity is designed to correct. 

2. In taking a view of the nature of Chris¬ 
tianity, we may first glance at its account of 
that adorable Being from whom it professes 
to have derived its origin. 

“ God is a spirit,” John iv. 24. “ The God 
of glory,” Acts vii. 2. “ The living God who 
made heaven and earth,” Acts xiv. 15. “ He 
giveth to all, life, and breath, and all things,” 
Acts xvii. 25. “ He maketh his sun to rise 

on the evil and on the good; and sendeth 
rain on the just and on the unjust also,” 
Matt. v. 45. “Is the blessed and only Po¬ 
tentate, the King of kings, and Lord of 
lords,” 1 Tim. vi. 15. “ The King eternal, 

immortal, invisible,” 1 Tim. i. 17. “ Who 

only hath immortality; dwelling in the light 
which no man can approach unto,” 1 'Pirn, 
vi. 16. “Heaven is his throne, and the 
earth his footstool,” Acts. vii. 49. “He is 
the Lord God Almighty,” Rev. iv. 8. “ Who 
trieth our hearts,” ! Thosg. ii. 4. “Neither 


Or CHRISTIANITY. 


123 


is there any creature that is not manifest in 
his sight; but all things are naked and open 
unto the eyes of him, with whom we have to 
do,” Heb. iv. 13. He is our Father. A 
“ heavenly Father who seeth in secret, 5 * 
Matt, vi 1. 14. “ God the only wise,” Rom. 

xvi. 27. “ Who cannot be tempted with evil, 

neither tempteth he any man,” Jam. i. 13. 
“ There is none good but God,” Mark x. 18. 
“He only is holy; just and true are his 
ways,” Rev. xv. 3, 4. “ He is the Father of 

mercies, and the God of all comfort,” 2 
Cor, i. 3. “ God who is rich in mercy,” Eph. 
ii. 4. “ And long suffering toward us,” 2 

Pet. iii. 15. “ He is the God of nil grace,” 

1 Pet. v. 10. “ Who giveth unto all men 

liberally, and upbraideth not,” Jam. i. 5. 
He f'eedeth the fowls of the air; and clothes 
the herb of the field in beauty; and knows 
that his children have need of raiment and 
of food, Matt. vi. 32. “ Behold the fowls of 

the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, 
nor gather into barns; which neither have 
storehouse, nor barn, and God feedeth 
them,” Matt. vi. 26. Lukexii. 24. Or “con¬ 
sider the lilies of the field how they grow: 
they toil not, they spin not; yet Solomon in 
all his glory was not arrayed like one of 
these,” Matt. vi. 28. Luke xii. 27. “ He is 

a faithful Creator,” l Pet. iv. 19. “The 
Father of lights, with whom is no variable¬ 
ness, neither shadow of turning,” Jam. i. 17. 
“ Every one of us shall give account of him* 
self to God,” Rom. xiv. 12» “He hath ap-» 


124 


THF. DITINE ORIGIN 


pointed a day in which he will judge the 
world in righteousness,” Acts. xrii. 81. 
“ God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus 
Christ,” Rom. ii. 16. “ Of him, and through 
him, and to him, are all things: to whom be 
glory for ever. Amen.” Rom. xi. 86. 

Thus it is the doctrine of the Christian 
system, that in God every perfection meets; 
that from him we derive our being; that all 
our mercies flow from his bounty; that to 
him we are accountable for our conduct here; 
and that hereafter we shall in his favor find 
eternal life, or in his anger eternal death. 

3. In considering the design of Christiani¬ 
ty, we may view it as designed to repress 
evil, and to produce good. In viewing it. as 
designed to repress evil, we may observe, 
there is no sin which it sanctions; no vice, 
whose extirpation it does not attempt. “ God 
now comrnandeth all men every where to 
repent,” Acts. xvii. SO. “ Let every one 
that nameth the name of Christ depart from 
iniquity,” 2 Tim. ii. 19. “ Abstain from 

fleshly lusts which war against the soul,” 1 
Pet. ii. 11. “ Having these promises, let us 

cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the 
flesh and of the spirit,” 2 Cor. vii. 1. “ The 
works of the flesh are manifest, which are 
these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, 
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, 
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, 
revellings, and such like. Of the which I 
tell you before, as I have also told you in 


OP CHRISTIAN ITT. 


125 


times past, that they which do such things 
shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” Gal. 
v. 19—21. “ Put ye off the old man vvhieh 

is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” 
Eph. iv. 22. “ Fornication, and all unclean¬ 
ness, or covetousness, let it not once be nam¬ 
ed among you, as becometh saints. Neither 
filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, 
which are not convenient. For this ye know, 
that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, 
nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath 
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ 
arid of God,” Eph. v. 3— 5. “ Be not drunk 

with wine, wherein is excess,” Eph. v. 18. 
“ Let him that stole steal no more,” Eph. iv. 
28. “Let no man go beyond, and defraud 
his brother in any matter,” 1 Thess. iv. 6. 
“ Owe no man any thing,” Rom. xiii. 8. 
“ Let no corrupt communication proceed out 
of your mouth. Grieve not the Holy Spirit 
of God,” Eph. iv. 29, 80. “ Lie not one to 

another, seeing that you have put off the 
old man with his deeds,” Col. iii. 9. “ Swear 
not at all; but let your communication he 
yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is more 
than this eometh of evil,” Matt. v. 34, 37. 
“ Bless and curse not,” Rom. xii. 14. “He 
that will love life let him refrain his tongue 
from evil, and his lips that they speak no 
guile,” 1 Pet. iii. 10. “ The tongue is a 

fire, a world of iniquity; it defileth the whole 
body; and setteth on fire the course of na¬ 
ture, and is set on fire of hell; it is an unru- 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


126 

ly evil full of deadly poison. Out of the 
same mouth proceedeth blessing and curs- 
ing; my brethren, these things ought not so 
to be,” Jam. iii. 6,8. 10. ‘‘Speak evil of 
no man,” Tit. iii. 2. “ Be ye angry, and sin 
not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. 
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger 
and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away 
from you, with all malice,” Eph. iv. 26 31. 
“ Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and 
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speak¬ 
ings, desire the sincere milk of the word,” 
1 Pet. ii. 1. “Avenge not yourselves, but 
rather give place unto wrath,” Rom. xii 19. 
“Not rendering evil for evil; or railing for 
railing,” 1 Pet. iii.'9. “ Be not overcome of 

evil; but overcome evil with good,” Rom. xii. 
21. “ God resisteth the proud,” Jam. iv. 6. 

“Watch and pray that ye enter not into 
temptation,” Matt. xxvi. 41. 

Not only do the sacred writers thus forbid 
the crimes to which man is so prone, but 
they denounce tremendous wrath against 
the criminal. They declare that no one can 
be a chili! of God, who does not renounce 
sin; and they call on the disciples of Jesus 
not merely to renounce, but to hate iniquity. 
“ Have no fellowship with the unfruitful 
works of darkness,” Fph. v. 11. “Abstain 
from all appearance of evil,” 1 Thess. v. 22. 
“ Abhor that which is evil,” Rom. xii. 9. 
“ A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; 
by their fruits ye shall know them,” Matt, 
vii. 18. 20. “ God is light, and in him is no 


OF qURISTIAtflTT, 


127 


darkness at all. If we say that we have fel¬ 
lowship with him and walk in darkness, we 
lie, and do not the truth,” 1 John i. 5. 6. 
“ He that suith, I know him, and keepeth 
not his commandments, is a liar, and the 
truth is not in him,” 1 John ii. 4. “In this 
the children of God are manifest, and the 
children of the devil. Whosoever doth not 
righteousness is not of God,” 1 John iii. 10. 
“ Not every one that saith to me Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but 
he that doeth the will of my Father, who is 
in heaven,” Matt. vii. 21. “ The unrighte¬ 

ous shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” 
1 Cor. vi. 9. “Thereshall in no wise enter 
into it any thing that defileth,” Rev. xxi. 27. 
“ God will render to every man according 
to his deeds: unto them that are contentious, 
and do not obey the truth, but obey unright¬ 
eousness, indignation and wrath; tribulation 
and anguish upon every soul of man that 
doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the 
Gentile,” Rom. ii. 6, 8, 9. “The fearful, 
and unbelieving, and the abominable, and 
murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcer¬ 
ers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
their part in the lake which burneth with 
fire and brimstone, which is the second 
.death,” Rev. xxi. 8. 

4. The precepts given by the Lord Jesus 
and his apostles, not merely forbid all sin, 
but inculcate holiness of the most exalted 
kind; and represent the motives for this ho¬ 
liness of a nature as exalted. “ Ye are not 


223 


the divine omaiN 


your own, for ye are bought with a price; 
therefore glorify God in your body and 
spirit which are God’s,” 1 Cor. vi. 20. 
“ Your bodies are the members of Christ,” 
1 Cor. vi. 15. “Ye are the temple of God. 
and the spirit of God dwelleth in you,” 1 
Cor. iii. 16. “ We walk by faith not by 

sight,” 2 Cor. v. 7. “We look not at the 
things which are seen, but at the things 
which are not seen; for the things which are 
seen are temporal, hut the things w hich are 
not seen are eternal,’’ 2 Cor. iv. 13. 

The scriptures represent real Christians as 
those who live to God. “ None of us liveth 
to himself, and no man dieth to himself; for 
whether w'e live, we live unto the Lord; 
and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: 
whether we live therefore or die, we are the 
Lord’s,” Rom. xiv. 7, 8. In the example of 
Christ, as represented in his word, a pattern 
of pure and spotless excellence is presented 
to our view; and this example his followers 
are directed to copy. “Christ also suffered 
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow his steps,” 1 Pet. ii. 21. The scrip¬ 
tures declare that love to God is the first and 
great commandment; “ Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with 
all thy strength,” Matt. xxii. 37. Luke x. 
27. and represent the Savior as having per¬ 
formed such a work, as entitles him to the 
most fervent affection of the heart. “ He 
that loveth father or mother more than me, 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


129 


is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son 
or daughter more than me, is not worthy of 
me; and ho that taketh not his cross, and 
folioweth after me, is not worthy of me,” 
Matt. x. S7. Yet if called to this trial the 
Christian has a source of joy: “Rejoice in 
the Lord always,” Phil. iv. 4. 

On all the subjects most connected with 
the welfare of man, the New Testament fur¬ 
nishes important instruction. 

“ Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in 
every thing, by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving letyourrequests be made known 
unto God,” Phil. iv. 6. “ Pray without ceas¬ 
ing; in every thing give thanks,” 1 Thes. v. 
17, 18. “Be ye thankful,” Col. iii. 15. 
“When thou prayest, enter into thy clpset, 
and shut thy door, and pray to thy Father, 
who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth 
in secret,shall reivard the openly,’’Matt. vi. 6. 

Connected with a devotional is a humble 
spirit. “ Blessed are the poor in spirit; for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Matt. v. 3. 
“Mind not high things, but condescend to 
men of low estate. Be not wise in your own 
conceits,” Rom. xii. 16. “All of you be 
clothed with humility,” 1 Pet. v. 5. “ Lot 

this mind be in you, which was also in Christ. 
Who being in the form of God, thought it 
not robbery to be equal with God, but ltiado 
himself of no reputation,” Phil. ii. 5—7. 

Contentment, resignation,and trust in God, 
are eminent Christian graces. “Let your 
conversation be Without covetousness, and he 
9 


330 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


content with such things as ye have, for he 
hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
thee,” Heb. xiii. 5. “ Casting all your care 

upon him, for he careth for you,” 1 Pet. v. 7. 
“ Let us run with patience the race that is 
set before us,” Heb. xii. 1. “Be patient in 
tribulation,” limn. xii. 12. “Despise not 
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint 
when thou art rebuked of him,” Heb. xii. 5. 
“Not my will but thine be done,” Luke 
xxii. 42. “ The cup which my Father hath 

given me, shall I not drink it?” John xviii. 
11. “Fear not them which kill the body, 
and after that have no more that they can 
do,” Luke xii. 4. “Fear not, little flock, 
for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give 
you the kingdom,” Luke xii. 32. 

Holiness is represented as indispensable in 
the Christian character. “ Blessed are they 
that hear the word of God, and keep it,” 
Luke xi. 28. “Ye are my friends, if ye do 
whatsoever I command you,” John xv. 14. 
“ Be ye holy, for I am holy,” 1 Pet. i. 16. 
“ Follow holiness, without which no man 
shall see the Lord,” Heb. xii. 14. “ May 

the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly; 
and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Thess. v. 23. “Ev¬ 
ery man that hath this hope in him, purifieth 
himself, even as he is pure,” 1 John iii. 3. 
“ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance; and they that are 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


131 


Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with its af¬ 
fections and lusts,” Gal. v. 22—24. “ Giving 
all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to 
virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temper¬ 
ance, and to temperance patience, and to 1 
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly 
kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity,” 
2 Pet. i. 5. “Whatsoever things are true, 
whatsoever tilings are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever 
things are of good report; if there he any 
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on 
these things,” Phil. iv. 8. 

Theehristian is taught to set his affections 
on nobler objects than those of this transitory 
state. “ Lay not up for yourselves treasures 
upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, 
and thieves break through and steal; but lay 
up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where 
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,and where 
thieves do not break through nor steal,” 
Matt. vi. 19. “Set your affections on the 
things above, and not on things on the earth,” 
Col. iii. 2. “ Our conversation is in heaven, 

from whence we look for the Savior,” Phil, 
iii. 20. “ Here we have no continuing city, 

but we seek one to come,” Heb. xiii. 14. 

Benevolence and love are graces, on which 
the great Author of the gospel has laid the 
utmost stress; and these graces are not, like 
the benevolence of philosophy, to be exhaust¬ 
ed in canting whinings about intense sympa¬ 
thy,and fine expressions ^outgreat liberality, 


132 


*H£ DIVINE ORIGIN 


but are to be displayed by the mortification 
of selfish principles, and by active exertions 
to promote the welfare of others. “Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” Matt, 
xxii. 39. “ This is my commandment that 

ye love one another, as I have loved you,” 
John xv. 12. “ By love serve one another,” 

Gal. v. 13. “Be ye kind one to another, 1 
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even 
as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. 
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear 
children, and walk in love, as Christ also 
hath loved us,” Eph. iv. 32. v. 1. “We 
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren,” 
1 John iii. 16. “If a man say, I love God, 
aud hateth his brother, he is a liar,” 1 John 
iv. 20. “All things, whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them,” Matt. vii. 12. “ Give to him that 

asketh thee; and from him that would bor¬ 
row of thee,turn thou not away,” Matt. v. 
42. “Let no man seek his own, but every 
man another’s welfare,” 1 Cor. x. 24. “ Bear 
ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the 
law of Christ,” Gal. vi. 2. “ Rejoice with 

them that rejoice; and weep with them that 
weep,” Rom. xii. 15. “ To do good and to 

communicate, forget not; for with such sacri¬ 
fices God is well pleased,” Heb. xiii. 16. 
“ Pure religion and undefiled,before God and 
the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and 
widows in their affliction, and to keep him¬ 
self unspotted from the world,” Jam. i. 27. 

Whoso hath this world’s goods, and seelh 


or CHRISTIANITY. 


133 


his brother have need, and shutteth up his 
bowels of compassion from him, how dwell- 
eth the love of God in him?” 1 John iii. 17. 
“ It is more blessed to give than to receive,” 
Acts xx. 35. “He which soweth sparingly 
shall reap also sparingly; and he which sow¬ 
eth bountifully shall reap also bountifully,” 
2 Cor. ix. 6. 

Mercy, meekness, the love of peace and 
forgiveness are all strongly inculcated in the 
Christian system. “ Blessed are the merciful, 
for they shall obtain mercy,” Matt. v. 7. 
“ Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall 
be called the children of God,” Matt. v. 9. 
“ If it be possible,as much as liethiu you,live 
peaceably with all men,” Rom. xii. 18. “ Be 
ye all of one mind,” 1 Pet. iii. 8. “ When 

ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught 
against any,” Mark xi. 25. “ If ye forgive 

men their trespasses, your heavenly Father 
will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not 
men their trespasses, neither will your Father 
forgive your trespasses,” Matt. vi. 14, 15. 
“ Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
you; do good to them that hate you; and 
pray for them that despitefully use you, and 
persecute you; that ye may be the children of 
your Father, which is in heaven; for he 
inaketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the 
good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on 
the unjust also,” Matt. v. 44, 45. “ Rec¬ 

ompense to no man evil for evil. If thy enemy 
hunger,feed him; if he thirst,give him drink,” 
Rom. xii. 17. 20. 


134 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


Religion inculcates diligence in the pursuit 
of piety; and in attention to the necessary 
duties of this mortal state. “ Let the word 
of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, 
teaching and admonishing one another in 
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, 
singing with grace in your hearts unto the 
Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or 
■deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
giving thanks to God and the Father by him, 55 
Col. iii. 15, 16. “ Be not slothful in business, 
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Provide 
things honest in the sight of all men, 53 Rom. 
xii. 11. 17. “ If any will not work, neither 

should he eat, 53 2 Thess. iii. 10. “ If any 

provide not for his own, he hath denied the 
faith, and is worse than an infidel,” 1 Tim. 
v. 8. 

Christianity teaches its disciples so to act 
in the various relations of domestic and social 
life, that the peade and happiness of families, 
or nations, must be the inevitable result. 
“ Teach the young women to be sober, to 
love their husbands, to love their children, to 
be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, 
obedient to their own husbands. The aged 
women likewise, that they be in behavior us 
becometh holiness; not false accusers, not 
given to much wine, teachers of good things,” 
Tit. ii. 4, 5. “ Husbands, love your wives, 

even as Christ also loved 'the church, and 
gave himself for it. So ought men to love 
their wives as their own bodies,” Eph. v. 25. 
“Speak thou, that tlie aged men be sober. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


135 


grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, 
in patience. Young men, exhort to be so¬ 
ber-minded,” Tit. ii. 2. 6. “ Ye younger, 

submit yourselves unto the elder,” 1 Pet. v. 
5. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, 
for this is right. Honor thy father and thy 
mother that it may be well with thee,” Eph. 
vi. 1. S. “ Fathers, provoke not your chil¬ 
dren to anger, lest they be discouraged,” 
Col. iii. 21. “But bring them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord,” Eph. 
vi. 4. “ Servants, be obedient to them that 

are your masters: not with eye-service, as 
men pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, 
doing the will of God from the heart,” Eph. 
vi. 5, 6. “ Be subject not only to the good 

and gentle, but also to the froward,” 1 Pet. 
ii. IS. “ And they that have believing mas¬ 
ters, let them not despise them because they 
are brethren; but rather do them service, 
because they are faithful and beloved, par¬ 
takers of the benefit,” 1 Tim. vi. 2. “And 
ye, masters, do the same things unto them; 
forbearing threatening, knowing that your 
Master also is in heaven, neither is there re¬ 
spect of persons with him,” Eph. vi. 9. 
“ Give unto your servants that which is just 
and equal,” Col. iv. 1. “Honor all men, 
love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the 
king,” 1 Pet. ii. 17. “Render to all their 
dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom 
to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to 
whom honor. Owe no man any thing, but 
to love one another,” Rom. xiii. 7, 8. 


is© 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


In such a course of piety and holiness, the 
disciples of the Lord Jesus are directed to 
persevere till death. “ Be ye stedfast, un¬ 
moveable, always abounding in the work of 
the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your 
labor is not in vain in the Lord,” 1 Cor. xv. 
58. “ Let us not be weary in well-doing, 

for in due season we shall reap if we faint 
not,” Gal. vi. 9. “ Be thou faithful unto 

death, and I will give thee a crown of life,” 
Rev. ii. 10. 

5. The motives by which Christianity en¬ 
forces obedience to its pure and holy precepts, 
are many of them peculiarly its own, and all 
of them of the most elevating or weighty 
kind. Its principal motives are gratitude and 
love, for the enjoyment of blessings of incal¬ 
culable worth, and hopes bright with immor¬ 
tal glory. That man is a fallen, guilty, and 
depraved creature is so visible, that even 
heathens and deists have acknowledged the 
fact. That which is visible on this subject 
even to heathens Christianity more clearly 
reveals: it discovers to man his real condi¬ 
tion; represents him as the transgressor of a 
divine law, which is holy, just, and good; 
as having rebelled against God to an awful 
degree, Luke xv. Matt, xviii. as having de¬ 
served the wages of sin, which is death, Rom. 
vi. 23. and as standing guilty, condemned, 
and helpless before his God, Rom. iii. 9—19. 
Christianity points to the source of this guilt, 
the depravity of a fallen nature, which is so 
sinful, that mere human power cannot change 


OF CHRISTIANITY'. 


137 


it. To qualify any one for celestial happi¬ 
ness, he must be renewed in the spirit of his 
mind; be “born again, 3 ’ be “ born of God, 3 * 
John iii. 5. i. 12, 13. To man, thus fallen 
and guilty, Christianity proclaims that won¬ 
der of wonders, the incarnation of the Son 
of God. It declares, “ God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not 
periidi, but have everlasting life,” John iii. 
16. “ Herein is love, not that we loved God, 

but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be 
the propitiation for our sins. And we have 
seen and do testify that the Father sent the 
Son to be the Savior of the world,” 1 John 
iv. 10. 14. The Lord Jesus having thus ap¬ 
peared as “ God manifest in the flesh,” is 
declared by his sufferings and death to have 
atoned for the sins of men. “ He was woun¬ 
ded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
for our iniquities: the chastisement of cur 
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we 
are healed,” Isaiah liii. 5. “ He hath appear¬ 
ed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
many,” Heb. ix. 26. 28. The Lord Jesus is 
further represented as having ascended to 
heaven, and as there interceding for all that 
come to him; “Seeing then that we have a 
great High-priest, that is passed into the 
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold 
fast our pofession,” Heb. iv. 14. “ He is 

able to save them to the uttermost that come 
unto God by him, seeing lie ever liveth 


133 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


to make intercession for them,” Heb. vii. 25. 

The Christian is represented as under the 
greatest obligations to this adorable Savior, 
and as sensible of those obligations. 

“ When we were yet without strength,— 
while we were yet sinners,Christ died for us,” 
Rom. v. 5. 7. “When we were enemies, 
vve were reconciled to God by the death of 
his Son. Much more, being reconciled, we 
shall be saved by his life,” Rom. v. 10. 
“ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
the law, being made a curse for us,” Gal. iii. 
13. “Jesus delivered us from the wrath to 
come,” 1 Thess. i. 10. “ Blessed be the God 

and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in 
heavenly places in Christ; he hath made us 
accepted in the beloved. We have redemp¬ 
tion through his blood, the forgiveness of 
sins, according to the riches of his grace,” 
Eph. i. 3, 6, 7. “ Ye know the grace of our 

Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, 
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye 
through his poverty might be rich,” 2 Cor. 
viii. 9. “ The great God and our Savior 

Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that 
he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
purify unto himself a peculiar people, zeal¬ 
ous of good works,” Tit. ii. 13, 14. “ Being 
justified by faith, we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom 
also we have access by faith into this grace 
wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the 
glory of God. Being now justified by his 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


m 


blood, we shall be saved from wrath through 
him,” Rom. v. 1,2.9. “ Ye know that ye 

were not redeemed with corruptible things, 
as silver and gold, from your vain conversa¬ 
tion received by tradition from your fathers: 
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of 
a lamb without blemish and without spot: 
who his own self bear our sins in his own 
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, 
should live unto righteousness: by whose 
stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep 
going astray: but are now returned unto the 
Shepherd and Bishop of yoursouls,” 1 Pet. i. 
18,19. ii. 24,25. “ Unto him that loved us,and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood, 
and hath made us kings and priests unto God 
and his Father; to him be glory and domin¬ 
ion for ever and ever. And they sung a new 
song, saying, Thou art worthy, for thou wast 
slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy 
blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and 
people, and nation,” Rev. i. 5, 6. v. 9. To 
all who become partakers of the blessings of 
redeeming love, eternal good is promised: 
“ Where I am there shall also my servant 
be,” John xii. “ The King shall say to them 
on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my 
Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world.” The 
righteous shall go away “into life eternal,” 
Matt. xxv. 34. 46. “ So shall we ever be 

with the Lord,” 1 Thess. iv. 17. 

True Christians are thus described, not as 
merely anticipating, but as actually possess** 


140 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


jng blessings of inestimable value. They are 
reconciled to God, are redeemed from the 
curse, are delivered from the wrath to come; 
have redemption and the forgiveness of sins; 
are blessed with all spiritual blessings, are 
brought nigh to God, have access to him, 
and belong to his household; are delivered 
from the power of darkness, and are trans¬ 
lated into the kingdom of Jesus. And all 
this multitude of blessings flows from no 
superiority or virtue of theirs, nor from 
the mere mercy of their God, but all is en¬ 
joyed through the blessed Jesus. Are they 
reconciled to God ? it is through his death. 
Have they peace with God? He made it 
through the blood of his cross. Have they 
redemption? it is through his blood. Aro 
they delivered from this present evil world? 
He gave himself for their deliverance. Have 
they received the atonement? it is through 
the Lord Jesus. Are their sins forgiven? 
He is their propitiation. Are they delivered 
from the curse of the law? He was made a 
■curse for them. Are they saved from the 
wrath to come? He died and delivered them. 
Are they rich? it is through his poverty. 
Are they made divinely righteous? He was 
made a sin offering to render them so. Are 
they made nigh to God? it is by the blood of 
Christ. Have they all spiritual blessings? 
they have them in him. His atoning blood is 
the foundation of their hopes: in short, the 
Lord Jesus Christ is their “all in all.” 

All the blessings which the Christian is thus 


Or CHRISTIANITY. 


141 


declared to possess, are represented ns orig¬ 
inating in the Father’s love, though flowing 
to the soul through the sufferings and medi¬ 
ation of the Son. The Christian is also de¬ 
scribed as unspeakably indebted to the Holy 
Spirit, for blessings of the greatest value. 
The followers of Christ are represented as 
“ born of the Spirit,” John iii. 5, &c. as 
“ abounding in hope through the power of 
the Holy Ghost,” Rom. xv. 13. as having 
“the love of God shed abroad in” their 
“ hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto them,” 
Rom. v. 5. “ The Spirit witnesses with 

their spirit that they are the children of God,” 
Rom. viii. 15. Through the Spirit they 
“ mortify the deeds of the body,” Rom. viii. 
13. The Spirit helps their infirmities, Rom. 
viii. 26. and under his influence every heav¬ 
enly grace is produced; “ The fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,gen¬ 
tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temper¬ 
ance; against such there is no law. And 
they that are Christ’s, have crucified the flesh 
with the affections and lusts,” Gal. v. 22—24. 

The practical effect of these truths, upon 
those that really enter into them is very groat* 
What should be the feelings, what the lan¬ 
guage of the Christian who views himself and 
his condition rightly? “Father,” he can 
exclaim, “ nothing that I have is mine; for 
I forfeited all, and lost myself. Sin undid me, 
guilt lay heavily on my soul. Behind me 
were years of sin, before me endless ruin and 
the gloom of eternal night. I lay a helpless, 


142 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


ruined wretch, justly condemned to death and 
Jbeil, and as able to pluck the sun from the 
firmament as to blot out my crimes, or to set 
aside the sentence of deserved condemnation. 

I had lost thy favor. I had lost the love of 
all the inhabitants of heaven. 1 had no 
claim upon its smallest blessing; nothing was 
mine but guilt and condemnation; nothing 
awaited me but death and damnation. With¬ 
out one gleam of hope, one possibility of 
escape, my all forfeited, my all lost, I was 
hastening to eternal night. Then didst thou 
interpose. Then did thy Son bleed and atone 
for me, and now 1 live. No sentence of 
death hangs over me; thou hast given me 
more than a reprieve, a gracious pardon. No 
condemning law now demands the punish¬ 
ment of my soul, and dooms that soul to 
death and hell; thou hast turned its threaten¬ 
ing curse aside. Not only hast thou given me 
a pardon, but given thy Spirit to renew my 
nature; to form in me a holy disposition, and 
to train me for th§ holiness and happiness of 
heaven. I live, pardoned and saved, a brand 
snatched from the burning; but whose am I? 
not my own. The blood which ransomed 
me when I had lost my all, bought all I now 
possess, and all I am. JVly claim to every 
good was quite extinguished; but thou, who 
hast ransomed me from death, hast a just 
claim on all I am and all I have. Thou art 
my Redeemer, and thou hast a right to me; 
thou hast had compassion on my body and 
my soul; I am thy property, and while I live 


OF CilRISTIANITF. 


143 


would live to thee. O let me live the life 
which such obligations demand! Live as not 
my awn but thine! live as having nothing 
but what is thine!” 

6. Were the principles inculcated, and the 
precepts given by Christianity, brought into 
universal action, bow vast, bow glorious a 
change would the world exhibit! the earth 
would become a paradise, in which man 
would walk with God. The inhabitants of 
heaven might almost mingle with the family 
of man; or, if they did not visit this world, 
would still behold on the earth, an immense 
multitude ripening to he their companions in 
the regions of eternal day. In ail the mil¬ 
lions of mankind not one child of perdition 
would be found. Man, no longer alienated 
from God, would cease to adore the beasts of 
the field, the reptiles of the dust, the birds of 
the air, the fishes of the sea, rivers, plants, 
dead profligates, and demons. The Eternal 
would no longer he robbed of his honor; and 
see that worship which belongs only to him¬ 
self, paid to blocks of stone, and logs of 
wood, and disgusting images of clay. Nor 
any longer would there be cause for that 
severe, hut just sarcasm, 

“ Be heaven and earth amaz’d ! ’tis hard to say, 

Which are more stupid—or their gods or they !” 

No longer would man rival fallen angels in 
wickedness, by rejecting the God of heaven 
and earth, arid choosing in his place a log of 
wood, or a stone, or a beast, or a demon. 

The deserted heathen temples would 


144 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


moulder into ruins; and not one worshipper 
be left to the idols, which infatuated millions 
now adore; no human victim would die upon 
the altars of heathenism; no pagan priests, 
deceiving and deceived, act as prime minis¬ 
ters of Satan; no parents would offer their 
infants in sacrifice to the Molochs of modern 
times. The tiger would lose his worshippers 
in Dahomy; and the snake and the alligator 
and the hyena theirs, and the serpent his in 
India, and devils theirs in Ceylon. The 
system of Buddhu would no longer make the 
millions of Burma and China not merely 
idolaters but atheists. On the wide earth 
not an atheist would be found. Not an idol 
would be known, unless preserved as a me¬ 
morial of the sin and folly of departed ages. 

Then, too, the moral evils that ravage this 
world would cease to exert their baneful 
power; and with them many natural evils 
also would depart. Those precepts of Chris¬ 
tianity, which have been adduced in this 
chapter, if universally obeyed, would drive 
them from the dwellings of man. The 
plagues of lust and cruelty, of avarice and 
selfishness, of falsehood and injustice, would 
vanish, like the gloom of night, before the 
radiance of the dawning sun. Repentance 
would fill every heart with abhorrence of in¬ 
iquity in all its forms. No longer would 
lewdness,like a malignant pest, spread around 
desolation, and misery, and woe. No sedu¬ 
cer would exist. No young female would 
mourn her peace and honor lost; no aban- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


145 


rioneri woman would be found in all the world* 
The numerous crimes which impurity com¬ 
mits would no longer pollute the earth, and 
make it ‘‘sicken and groan beneath the load 
of human guilt.” Let Christian instructions 
be universally obeyed, and drunkenness and 
intemperance would that moment vanish; the 
drunkard’s song would be unheard, and a 
midnight revel unknown. No longer would 
graves be filled with the victims of gluttony 
and drunkenness, nor families be clothed in 
rags, and pining in hunger, for want of what 
a savage parent spends on intoxication. Vi¬ 
olence would no more be witnessed upon 
earth. No heart would burn with anger or 
revenge; no breast rankle with envy or mal¬ 
ice; no eye flame with rage; no countenance 
be distorted with fury, but meekness and 
gentleness universally prevail. Man would 
have no enemy to injure him, no injuries to 
revenge; or if unawares an injury were com¬ 
mitted, the only return would be good for 
evil. The traveller might wander from Brit¬ 
ain to Japan, and neither find nor fear an 
enemy; and at midnight might travel alone 
as securely and fearlessly through dreary 
solitudes as he would do in the midst of com¬ 
panions in the blaze of day. Oppression 
would no longer exist; the poor man in his 
cottage would be as free from its assaults as 
the king upon his throne. The sun in its 
journey round the earth would not behold 
one murderer there. War, that system of 
legalized murder, would be forever ban /'shed 
10 


146 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


from this world, which it has drenched with 
blood; no widows would mourn their hus¬ 
bands murdered in war; no orphans lament 
the death of parents, snatched away by the 
cruel sword, nor aged parents go sorrowing 
to the grave for children thus destroyed. Did 
Christianity universally prevail, another life 
would never be forfeited,the blood of another 
victim would never be shed, another murder 
would never be committed, another sword 
would never be drawn. With war would 
vanish the evils in its train; the famines it 
occasions, the pestilences it generates, the 
oppressive weight of taxes that grinds na¬ 
tions to the dust. Christianity, universally 
embraced, would turn swords into plough¬ 
shares, and spears into pruning-hooks; would 
disband hostile armies, annihilate ships of 
war and instruments of destruction; would 
leave towers and fortifications to crumble in¬ 
to ruins, unheeded and unvalued; and make 
the nations of the earth as safe without one 
spear, or shield, or sword, as are the inhab¬ 
itants of heaven itself. 

Dishonesty, and all the evils it occasions, 
would take their everlasting flight; no light 
weights or short measures would deceive and 
rob the unsuspecting; no more would there 
be lawful debts unpaid; no borrowing without 
repaying; no hard bargains, no exaction ; no 
fraudulent debtor would cheat his creditor; 
no griping miser hoard up his useless store. 
No dishonest servant would pilfer his em¬ 
ployer’s property, or receive wages which, 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


147 


through idleness and inattention, he had not 
earned. No unkind master would oppress 
his dependents; the rich would not withhold 
any part of the remuneration which the poor 
man’s labors deserve. An extortioner in any 
of these, or in the thousand ways in which 
men become extortioners,would be unknown; 
nor would one thief exist in all the nations 
of the earth. No robber would ever molest 
the traveller, no plunderer disturb the sleep¬ 
ing flock; the ^fruits of the orchard or the 
field would be untouched by a dishonest hand. 
Houses would need no locks, no bolfs, no 
bars; the most lonely dwelling would be per¬ 
fectly secure, and its inhabitants rest as safe¬ 
ly and sweetly beneath the shades of night 
as a babe upon its mother’s breast. No poor 
negro stolen from his country would lament 
friends and liberty forever lost; a slave would 
not exist, nor a slave-dealer or slave-owner 
be found upon earth. 

Were attention to the precepts of Chris¬ 
tianity universal and perfect, a host of other 
evils that now haunt the dwellings of man 
would be no more. Selfishness leads legions 
of evils in its train, but this would die; and 
with it the contentions, the ambition, the 
pride, the cruelty which it produces. The 
haughty look, the sneer, the contempt of 
pride would be unknown. The great would 
be respected, not for worthless show, but for 
real greatness, eminence in piety and benev¬ 
olence. The eye of scorn would no longer 
£urn contemptuously on the poor. No false 


na 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


philosopher would seek applause by cobweb 
systems, spun out to deceive and undo the 
fools that admire them; no young men would 
be self-conceited; the blooming damsel, no 
longer proud of fading charms, would be¬ 
come more lovely, while prizing charms 
which cannot fade. The poor would not 
survey their superiors with discontent, nor 
envy those whom Providence had placed in 
higher stations than their own. Scandal 
would no more blacken the reputation of the 
innocent; no tale-bearer, with a tongue set 
on fire of hell, would spread discord and 
strife through a circle, that else might dwell 
in peace. Lying, the source of innumerable 
evils, would cease. Neither in public nor 
private life can a course of sin subsist with¬ 
out deceit; the seducer prevails by lying; by 
this, the debtor cheats his creditor. By lying, 
nations mislead and ruin each other; by lying, 
impostors deceive the charitable; and by fic¬ 
titious tales of woe obtain that aid, which, 
but for this deceit, would be employed in re¬ 
lieving real misery. But, were the precepts 
of the gospel universally obeyed, not a lie 
would be uttered, nor a liar found in all the 
habitations of men. Perjury wouhj then, 
vanish; oaths would not be needed, for eve¬ 
ry lip would be the lip of truth. No pro¬ 
faneness, no cursing, no foolish talking, no 
corrupt communication would wound the 
ear, or pain or pollute the heart. 

The evils that occasion the bitterest sor¬ 
rows of domestic life would all cease; broth*. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


149 


ers and sisters would dwell together, stran¬ 
gers to contention and strife. No disobedi¬ 
ent son, no undutiful daughter, no unkind 
husband, no jarring wife, would be seen in 
all the world. In such a state of things there 
would be no oppressive rulers, no unfaithful 
subjects. Judges might cease to take their 
circuits, and to occupy the hall of justice; 
there would be no criminals to try. The 
gibbet would be no longer needed, and pris¬ 
ons would continue without one inhabitant 
till the hand of time levelled them in the dust, 
and left not one stone upon another. Laws 
would still continue in force, but they would 
scarcely be needed, for each would be a law 
unto himself. 

Could a system that aims at producing 
such effects come from any source but God? 
But as yet, we have contemplated only a part 
of its design. This divine religion aims at 
the introduction of much positive good. It 
would restore to God the place he ought to 
hold in the affections of his creatures, and 
man to the favor and image of his Maker.— 
If all were brought fully under its influence, 
every heart would love God with supreme 
affection. Every tongue would praise him. 
The black man and the white, the inhabitants 
of China and of Britain, of Greenland and 
of Chili, would unite in the same offering, 
and exult in the same Father. The rising 
sun would call every human being to com¬ 
munion with his God; and through the silence 
of evening, the countless aspirations of these 


150 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


countless worshippers would ascend to heav-* 
en. The sabbath would be a day of univer¬ 
sal rest, and universally improved would 
cheer, and bless, and sanctify a whole world 
travelling together to a sabbath in the skies. 
The whole human race would commence in 
time those praises which would be carried 
on and perfected through the extent of eter¬ 
nity. Every one would be a child of God, 
a member of his family, a temple of his Spir¬ 
it. Man, no longer indulging a will of his 
own, would make his heavenly Father’s 
pleasure his. “ Thy will be done,” would 
be a universal prayer; and not the formal 
prayer of hypocritical lips, but of submissive 
and devoted hearts: and what would be that 
world in which the will of God was done by 
all, and done in all, and done as it is done in 
heaven! Submission would lighten pain 
and affliction of half their weight. Instead 
of repining, the sufferer would feel a divine 
calm within while resigning his all to the 
will of his God. Stayed on Him, every soul 
would be kept in perfect peace. No distrust, 
no anxiety, would harrass the happy inhab¬ 
itants of the world; but each would confide 
in the care of an almighty Friend; and in the 
darkest hours each would rejoice that, 

“ Behind a frowning Providence 

He hides a smiling face.” 

All would act as in his sight, and endure 
as seeing Him, who, though invisible, is the 
Searcher of hearts. Every mercy would be 
received as a gift of his bounty; and enjoyed 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


151 


not for its value only, but as a token of a 
Father’s love. Every affliction would be 
considered as a chastisement inflicted by his 
hand. Man’s chief concern would be his 
Maker’s glory; and his only ambition to re¬ 
ceive, in the day of eternal judgment, the 
approbation of his God. The daily mercies 
of Providence would call forth unfeigned 
gratitude, and the wonders of redeeming 
love would universally excite admiration, 
thankfulness, and praise. That glorious 
person whose life redeemed a world, would 
be trusted by all and loved by all. In him all 
would glory, and he would be imitated by all. 
Even deists have extolled the character of 
Christ.—Chubb says, 

“ In Christ we have an example of a qui¬ 
et and peaceable spirit; of a becoming mod¬ 
esty and sobriety; just and honest, upright 
and sincere; and, above all, of a most gra¬ 
cious and benevolent temper. His life was 
a beautiful picture of human nature, when 
in its native purity and simplicity; and show¬ 
ed at once what excellent creatures men 
would be when under the influence and 
power of that gospe^he preached unto them.” 

Rousseau exclaims, “ What sweetness, 
what purity in his manners! what affecting 
grace in his instructions! what elevation in 
his maxims! what profound wisdom in his 
discourses! what empire over his passions! 
Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are 
those of a philosopher, the life and death of 
Jesus Christ are those of a God !” 


152 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


Were Christianity universal in its influ¬ 
ence; this holy life, this spotless example, 
this life not of a philosopher, but of a God, 
is that which all would strive to copy; and 
each would become s humble representation 
of what Jesus was. All that is pure, all 
that is lovely, all that is courteous, would be 
sought by all. Like him, all would consider 
themselves as strangers and pilgrims upon 
earth, and would live and act as travellers to 
heaven. The affections of none would grov¬ 
el in the dust. The things unseen would 
warm the hearts, and engage the desires, and 
animate the zeal of all. Meekness and gen¬ 
tleness would diffuse a universal charm, arid 
dwell in every house. Rude unkindness and 
rugged tempers, sullenness and obstinacy 
would be driven from the abodes of men. 
Humility would lower each in his own es¬ 
teem, and exalt him in the esteem of all be¬ 
sides. Contentment would reconcile every 
man to his lot. No one would view another 
as his rival; but ambition and dissatisfac¬ 
tion would flee away. Justice w r ould gov¬ 
ern all the dealings of men. Temperance 
would possess a universal reign. The com¬ 
forts and blessings of time would be employ¬ 
ed for the Giver’s glory. Raiment would 
no longer be prostituted as fuel to pride.— 
Men would use the world without abusing it: 
would weep as though they wept not; and 
rejoice as though they rejoiced not; and buy 
as though they possessed not. In such a re¬ 
newed state no one would live to himself. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


153 


but each would seek the benefit of all. The 
happiness of all would be the concern of 
each, and the happiness of each the concern 
of all. The comfortless would be cheered, 
the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the sick 
visited. The mourner would every where 
find a comforter, the widow a friend, the 
orphan a father. Love would lead the poor 
to rejoice in the prosperity of the rich, and 
the rich to minister so cheerfully and abun- 

V 

dantly to the comfort of the poor, that pov¬ 
erty itself would wear a smile. To give 
would universally be esteemed more blessed 
than to receive. Men would become as anx¬ 
ious to give as they now are to gain, and 
then would part with wealth more cheerful¬ 
ly than they receive it now. In every land 
the traveller would find himself in the midst 
of friends. Love would diffuse a holy calm 
through every breast, would render every 
house the abode of tranquillity, make every 
family happy in each other, and the world 
itself but one family; over villages, towns, 
and nations, it would spread a serenity as 
sweet as the unruffled calm of a still sabbath¬ 
evening on a summer’s day. Rivers, moun¬ 
tains, and seas would divide mankind into 
distinct communities, but not divide those 
bands of love that would knit them all into 
one. Every husband and wife now truly 
one, would cheer, and help, arid bless each 
other with mutual and unmingled kindness. 
Every parent would train his children up for 
heaven, and every child love, honor, and 


154 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


obey, and requite his parents. Every son 
would make a glad father, and every daughter 
a happy mother. Servants would regard 
their employers’ interest as their own; and 
masters in every way promote their servants’ 
welfare. Rulers, as shepherds and fathers, 
with parental care would labor for the inter¬ 
ests of the happy nations. Subjects would 
universally be faithful and loving. The 
ministers of religion would be in reality what 
they are in name; all taught of God, and all 
with pious care, would lead their flocks for¬ 
ward to the fold in heaven. A time-serving, 
time-wasting preacher would not exist among 
the myriads employed as ministers of the 
sanctuary; nor an unkind, discordant flock, 
nor a lukewarm Christian, nor a bigot, nor a 
hypocrite. Christians would form in reality 
but one church, as the world one family. All 
the followers of Jesus would be of one heart, 
and one soul, and all the world would be his 
followers. He that had five talents would 
improve them all, and he that had two, and 
he that had one; and all would provoke each 
other to love and holiness. To the aged, the 
hoary head would be universally as a crown 
of glory. Ripened in piety, they would 
stand as pillars in the temple of God below, 
prepared to become pillars in his temple 
above. The young would all display the 
charms of early piety. They would attract 
the love of earth and heaven; and render re¬ 
ligion as lovely in youth as it is venerable in 
age. And in the graces and duties of religion 


OF CHRISTIANITY, 


155 


al! would abound, and all would persevere, 
till called from this world to a mansion in 
the skies. Thus earth and heaven would 
contain but one family, and God the Father 
of the whole. The prospect of eternal life 
would gladden every heart, and diffuse 
through the whole race of man a general joy. 
What a world! How changed from what it 
is! The greater part of the evils under 
which man groans and mourns, would be 
banished with his vices! Yet not all, this is 
not his rest, for sin has polluted the earth. 
Sickness and death would still remain. Yet 
sickness universally would be lightened of its 
heaviest load. No sick bed would be without 
comfort and a comforter. The consolations of 
the gospel which all had loved, would cheer 
the dying hours of all. Death would no lon¬ 
ger be the king of terrors, but would univer¬ 
sally wear a smile, and beside the grave of 
every human being might that sublime an¬ 
them be sung, “ O death, where is thy sting? 
O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be 
to God who giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ!'’ 5 

These are the effects which Christianity, 
universally received and obeyed, would pro¬ 
duce. Is it a cunningly-devised fable? What 
human being could have devised it? Suppose 
it quite banished from the world, and all re¬ 
membrance of it forgotten, who could devise 
such another? 

7. Christianity is either from Heaven or it 
is the invention of the worst and most wicked 


156 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


of men; there is no medium. This proposi¬ 
tion admits abundant proof; if Christianity 
is what it professes to he, it is from Heaven : 
a system of truth and love, of which God 
himself is the author: but if it he not this, it 
is the most complete system of imposture 
that ever was palmed upon the world. The 
most complete , for other false religions have 
had so much in them quite unworthy of God, 
as to prove their human origin; but this is 
not the case with the Christian system. The 
wisest, and holiest, and best of mankind have 
always viewed it as divine. If Christianity 
is not from God, it is not merely a complete 
imposture, but the invention of the worst 
and most wicked of men. Its authors pro¬ 
fessed that it was from God, professed to 
work miracles in its support, and lived and 
died maintaining that it was a revelation from 
Heaven; and in attestation of this, most of 
them laid down their own lives. But if it 
were not from God, this was all base forgery 
and impious falsehood. They lived liars, and 
died liars; and died martyrs to a lie, and thus 
in fact became self-murderers. But their 
guilt in this case did not stop here. They 
saw multitudes embracing the gospel, and for 
it suffering persecution and death; yet instead 
of now coming forward, and telling them not 
to suffer for a fable, they encourage them to 
bear all extremities, and death itself rather 
than renounce their faith. On the supposi¬ 
tion that they knew Christianity to he from 
Heaven, this conduct was kind and consist- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


15T 


ent, for they knew that an abundant recom¬ 
pense awaited these sufferers; but if the 
apostles knew that it was a forgery, (and if 
it were, they must have known it,) what guilt 
or cruelty ever equalled that of encouraging 
multitudes to lay down even, life itself for 
such a forgery? of spreading through the 
world a system of imposture that would oc¬ 
casion the ruin and death of multitudes, 
break up the earthly prosperity of many 
families, and bring children and parents to an 
untimely grave? If Christianity be not from 
Heaven, a man who dies ignominiously for 
committing a single murder, would be inno¬ 
cent, compared with Paul and the other 
apostles who encouraged thousands to lay 
down their lives for what themselves knew 
to be a mere human ipiposture? It would be 
absurdity itself to consider the apostles as 
good, but deceived men. They could not be 
deceived. This admits of irresistible proof; 
and consequently they were either the best 
and most favored of men, or the worst and 
most impious. The religion they taught 
either came from Heaven, and they were 
Heaven’s messengers to man, or it was the 
production of the most unfeeling hearts, of 
the most hardened liars, that ever trod the 
surface of the earth. Which were they? 
Let the system answer. It has been shown 
that were ^Christianity received by all, and 
fully obeyed by all, there would not be an 
Idolater, nor an idol, nor an adulterer, nor a 
debauchee, nor a prostitute, nor a thief, no# 


153 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


a miser, nor an extortioner, nor a drunkard, 
nor a glutton, nor a murderer, nor war, nor 
revenge, nor malice, nor strife, nor hatred, 
nor a lie, nor scandal, nor an oppressor, nor 
a slave, nor an unfaithful servant, nor a hard 
master, nor an unkind parent, nor an unduti- 
ful child, nor pride, nor profaneness, nor a 
criminal, nor a prisoner, “ beneath the circuit 
of the sun.” „ 

But instead of these things, all would love 
God, all would trust him, all would obey him. 
The world would be his temple, and all na¬ 
tions his family. All would copy the holy 
example of the holy Jesus; all would confide 
in him, all would love him; and loving, imi¬ 
tate him; all would be contented, holy, hum¬ 
ble, meek, peaceful, gentle, good, patient, 
honest, just, united, compassionate, anxious 
for the welfare of others, more willing to 
give than to receive; tender-hearted, temper¬ 
ate, courteous; friends to the friendless, 
fathers to the fatherless; bent on heaven, and 
improving, for the honor of God and the 
good of man, their time on earth. Every 
husband and every wife would be happy in 
each other. Every child dutiful, and every 
parent affectionate; every servant faithful, 
and every master just and kind. The whole 
world as with but one heart, one soul, one 
object, one peaceful way, and one happy end; 
and all leading such a life as angels would 
lead, if angels dwelt below. 

You have seen that if the apostles were 
not the messengers of Heaven, they were the 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


159 


worst, the most wicked, the most false, the 
most impious of men. Could such men in¬ 
vent such a system? Could all that is benev¬ 
olent come from an unfeeling heart? All 
that is lovely and true, and that would change 
this melancholy world into a paradise, pro¬ 
ceed from the most abandoned and impious 
impostors? Would it not be more reasona¬ 
ble to expect grapes from thorns, or figs from 
thistles? Would it not be more possible for 
fire to freeze? and ice to burn? for earth¬ 
quakes to build? for volcanoes to spread 
plenty? for poison to nourish? and famine 
to feed starving millions, than for bad men to 
invent such a system? 

Whence then did Christianity spring? Not 
from bad men, it could not come from them. 
It must then have come from God; and it is 
worthy of him. It bears its Father’s lovely 
image; and in its likeness to his excellencies, 
shows its Author. 

8. Perhaps an objection already glanced at, 
may be started to the preceding argument 
respecting the effects and tendency of Chris¬ 
tianity; it may be said, that it does not pro¬ 
duce in its professors such effects as those 
which have been described. To this it is 
sufficient to reply, that the question is not 
what professed Christians are, but what com¬ 
mon sense must judge to be the tendency of 
Christianity, by examining its nature as dis¬ 
played in the New Testament. Were there 
not a Christian on earth, this would remain 
what it is. But it may be added, that with 


160 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


the generality of those who are called Chris¬ 
tians, Christianity has no concern. They 
are heathens in heart, and in life, though 
Christians in name. Of those who make a 
more express profession of Christianity, 
some are hypocrites. It is not respon¬ 
sible for their vices. Many that are sincere, 
are daily mourning their own defects, and 
lamenting that they fall so far short of what 
their holy religion requires. Surely Chris¬ 
tianity is not censurable for what its imper¬ 
fect professors declare it condemns. But,after 
all the deductions that may thus lie made, 
the tendency of Christianity is unaltered. 
The holy lives of many eminent Christians 
have displayed its power; and in numberless 
instances unknown and unnoticed by the 
world, it has raised to holiness, happiness, 
and heaven, the sons and daughters of vice 
and perdition. It has been said, 

“ Full many a gem of purest ray serene, 

The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear ; 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen. 

And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” 

Thus Christian piety often blooms in scenes 
unnoticed by the busy world; yet, though it 
blooms unseen by the gay multitude, it wastes 
no sweetness. Its charms are perceived, its 
influence is felt, while its obscure and per¬ 
haps poor possessors are maturing upon 
earth for a dwelling in the heavens. 

It is proper further to observe, upon the 
argument maintained in this chapter, that 
there is nothing in Christianity to counteract 


OF CHRISTIANITY* 


161 


its divine and holy tendency. In the system 
of Mahomet, and those of some heathen phi¬ 
losophers, some good appears, but so much 
evil is mixed with it, as more than counter¬ 
balances the good, and more than counteracts 
all the effects such good principles might pro¬ 
duce. Compare their systems to a machine, 
and it may be said that one part of the ma¬ 
chine obstructs the motions of the other. 
Instead of moving in harmony, one wheel 
counterworks another wheel, and the whole 
machine is disordered, and no valuable end 
accomplished. But it is not thus with 
Christianity; every wheel acts in its place, 
every movement plays in harmony. No one 
precept opposes another precept; no doctrine 
counteracts another doctrine; there is nothing 
in Christianity itself to weaken the influence 
of any of its principles or precepts. All act 
together, and the designed result is the great¬ 
est glory to God, and the greatest good to 
man. It is true, human corruption opposes 
a powerful obstacle to the tendency of Chris¬ 
tianity; but this is no defect in the system 
itself: this is an external, not an internal ob¬ 
stacle to its benevolent design. 

9. There is another kind of internal evi¬ 
dence for the divinity of the scriptures, which 
deserves attention, yet I shall not enlarge up¬ 
on it: and though it is very powerful, unless 
you are a partaker of the grace of God, you 
will not correctly discern it. It may be safely 
and confidently asserted, that unconverted 
men did not write the scriptures, for they 
11 


162 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN" 


could not write them. The views given in 
the scriptures of human nature, of the deceit¬ 
fulness and depravity of the heart, of the 
spiritual conflicts of a penitent sinner, or the 
varying experience of a child of God, are 
such as no unconverted man could describe, 
for he never had them. The world ridicules 
them; the wise and the learned treat them as 
enthusiasm and fanaticism. But does any 
man come to know himself, he then begins 
to discern that no mirror more truly reflects 
the likeness of a face, than the scriptures do 
the image of his heart. He sees now that this 
book describes to him what he is; and the more 
he grows in self-acquaintance, the more exact 
the picture seems. He can say of the 
scriptures, cc Come, see a book which tells 
me all that ever I was, and shows me all 
I am. Is not this from Heaven ?” No man, 
unless taught of God, ever could thus describe 
the human heart, and no man, unless taught 
of God, ever will see that the description is 
truth itself. Suppose a book were written 
delineating, in a glowing manner, the beau¬ 
ties of the creation as they appear to the eye. 
Let this book be read to a man born blind, 
what ideas would he gain upon the subject? 
It would be unintelligible to him. Let this 
man have sight given him, then let him sur¬ 
vey the creation, and afterwards read this 
book, it would be a new book to him; he 
would understand it now. He might now 
say, He who wrote this book was not blind; 
a blind man could not possibly have 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


163 


written it. He describes things just as I see 
them. What was needful to write this book ? 
Sight.—What was needful to understand it? 
Sight.—The blind could not write the book, 
nor the blind understand it. Apply this to 
the present subject: a man blind to the things 
of God, could not have written those descrip¬ 
tions of the human heart and religious expe¬ 
rience, which the scriptures contain; nor can 
a man who is blind to the things of God, gain 
any clear knowledge on these subjects,though 
he may admit them in speculation; but, if 
taught of God, if his blindness be removed, 
all becomes clear: he sees his heart described 
in the bible with infallible correctness; and 
thence may draw the satisfactory and impor¬ 
tant conclusion: Bad men could not write 
this book; those who wrote it must be what 
they professed themselves, the messengers of 
Heaven, and the religion they have taught 
must be divine. 


164 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


CHAPTER V. 

The Necessity of Revelation. 

1. The excellency of Christianity and its importance, 
seen from noticing the idolatry of heathen nations, 
its absurdity and folly—2. The abominable nature 
of heathen worship—3. Their cruelty—4. Their 
philosophers as benighted as the crowd—5. Nei¬ 
ther amended by increasing civilization and refine¬ 
ment—6. The philosophers’ examples infamously 
vicious—7. Their pride infernal—8. Abetted sui¬ 
cide—9. And hardness of heart—10. A brief 
view of some principles of modern infidels—11. 
Practical effects of modern infidelity on infidel phi¬ 
losophers—12. On the community—13. The 
reader urged to compare the apostles with heathen 
philosophers, or modern infidels—14. Brief view 
of Mahommedanism—15. Dying testimonies of 
Christians and infidels. 

1. The argument insisted on in the pre¬ 
ceding chapter, is in itself sufficiently strong; 
for whence, except from Heaven, could come 
a system that would make this distressed and 
wicked world a paradise? But this argument 
receives additional force, if we contrast Chris¬ 
tianity with the other prevalent religions of 
ancient or modern times; and with the avow¬ 
ed opinions of professed philosophers, either 
ancient or modern. What unassisted reason 
would do to promote the religious welfare of 
man, is best seen in what it has done. It 
may be useful to take a brief survey of some 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


165 


of the more prominent parts of the ancient 
heathen systems; and of the conduct and 
principles of their supporters. The apostle 
Paul, in the first chapter of the Romans, has 
described them in a correct but most dreadful 
manner. Is his dreadful description over¬ 
strained? Is his dark picture too darkly 
colored? Let a brief statement of facts re¬ 
ply.* Excepting the Jewish nation, men 
appear universally to have renounced the God 
of heaven . The Egyptians supposed the sun 
and moon to be the “ eternal gods” that gov¬ 
ern the whole world. The Phoenicians ac¬ 
counted the sun “ the only Lord of Heaven.” 
Plato says, that the ancient Greeks appear to 
have esteemed the sun, moon, earth, stars, 
and heaven, to be the only gods. When the 
Greeks grew polite and learned, they still 
worshipped the heavenly bodies. Anaxago¬ 
ras was accused at Athens of impiety for af¬ 
firming the stars to be inanimate,and the sun 
a body of fire, as he thus denied their divin¬ 
ity. Even the much-extolled Socrates cen¬ 
sured him for presumption and arrogance.— 
Plato frequently prescribes the worship of 
the stars, which seem the principle divinities 
he recommends to the people. Plutarch 
speaks of the sun and moon as animate, 

* Tho statements contained in this chapter are chiefly 
collected from Leland’s invaluable work on the necessity of 
Revelation. Readers who wish for tho authorities on which 
these statements are made, are referred to that work, where 
they will find an immense body of evidence proving their 
truth: and many statements respecting the horrid vices of 
ancient heathens which wore too impure and appalling to be 
ever mentioned here. 


166 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


{C whom all men worship, and to whom they 
offer up sacrifices and prayers.” Pliny says, 
cc It is reasonable to believe that this world 
and heaven which encompasseth and govern¬ 
ed! all things, is God eternal, immense, and 
which was never made, and shall never be 
destroyed.” The apostate emperor Julian 
speaks of the sun as the parent of mankind, 
and the giver of all good. Macrobius, an¬ 
other pagan writer who flourished under the 
emperor Theodosius, says, that the priests 
used this prayer. “O almighty sun, the spir¬ 
it of the world, the power of the world, the 
light of the world.” The same writer states, 
that the Assyrians worshipped the sun as the 
most high God. The sun was the chief god 
of the inhabitants of Mexico and Peru ; and 
was adored, under the name of Bel, by the 
ancient inhabitants of Britian. This idola¬ 
try, which the scriptures cal! the worship of 
the host of heaven, appears to have over¬ 
spread the world.* Another species of idol¬ 
atry, which, perhaps in a greater degree than 
the last, deluged the world with abomina¬ 
tions and iniquity, was the worship of dead, 
and often of profligate, men. The ancient 
Phoenicians and Egyptians reckoned those a- 
mong the greatest gods who had been the in¬ 
ventors of useful things. The greatest gods 
of the Romans, were Jupiter, Mars, Mercu¬ 
ry, Neptune, Vulcan and Apollo; and the 
goddesses Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Di- 

* Le land’s Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Rev¬ 
elation, p. i. c.3. 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


167 


ana, Venus. Cicero expressly says, that the 
chief gods of the nations were taken from a- 
rnongmen; and that their sepulchres were 
shown in Greece. The conduct of many of 
these gods is represented by their votaries as 
profligate in the extreme. A man who should 
act as these gods are represented to have 
done, would now be abhorred or even hung 
for his crimes. Besides vices not proper to 
be mentioned, Mercury is represented as a 
thief. Saturn is said to have devoured his 
own children. Vulcan to have been lamed 
by being tossed out of heaven by Jupiter, for 
taking part with Juno, when she and he 
were quarrelling. The rest of the rabble of 
their gods were no better. In short, tc the 
system of the poetical theology was full of 
the genealogies, the vices, the adulteries, the 
contentions of their gods. These things 
were acted on the theatres, with the applause 
and approbation of the people. These were 
the deities to whom temples and altars were 
erected, and sacrifices offered; to whose 
statues they paid divine honors; and whom 
the poets sung in all the charms of flowing 
numbers.”* To this it may be added, that 
Augustine observes that those fables, which 
ascribe to the gods, actions that none but the 
vilest men could commit, “ were not only 
permitted to be acted on the public theatres, 
and heard with pleasure there, but that they 
were regarded as things pleasing to the gods 
themselves, by which they were propitiated 
* Loland, p. 166. lb. 176. Ib. p. 150-153. 


163 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


and rendered favorable.” Anion" the an¬ 
cient, as well as among modern heathens, the 
worship of evil spirits also prevailed. The 
Egyptians worshipped Tryphon, whom they 
esteemed an evil power, at some solemni¬ 
ties, and cursed him at others. The Per¬ 
sians adored Arimanus, believed to be the 
evil principle. Porphyry represents evil de¬ 
mons as the authors of all human calami¬ 
ties, as seducers and liars, and plainly inti¬ 
mates that men generally rendered them re¬ 
ligious worship. 

The brute and vegetable creation also be¬ 
came objects of divine worship. The Egyp¬ 
tians paid divine honors to the ibis and ichneu¬ 
mon; to wolves, lions, crocodiles, dogs, cats, 
the cow, the bull, the goat, the sheep, the 
hawk,and many other animals both terrestri¬ 
al and aquatic. They are also charged with 
worshipping onions, garlic, &c.; and Juven¬ 
al derides them with having their gods grow¬ 
ing in their gardens. The Chaldeans ador¬ 
ed fire. The Athenians and others, images. 
Stilpo, a philosopher, was banished from A- 
thens, by the tribunal of Areopagus, for say¬ 
ing that a statue of Minerva, which Phidias 
the sculptor made, was not a god. Divinity 
was ascribed to whatever was useful in life. 
Temples were erected to mind, faith, virtue, 
honor, concord, health, victory, liberty; also 
to Fever, to Volupia, as the goddess of pleas¬ 
ure, &c. The Romans also built an altar to 
evil fortune, and deified tempests. Tho 
Athenians erected a temple to contumely 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


169 


and impudence. On the whole, there was 
scarcely any thing in nature so vile, or so 
foolish, as not to be worshipped as a god, by 
some or other of the heathens.* 

2. The religious worship paid these idols 
was in many cases cruel and bloody, or im¬ 
pure, to a degree which decency forbids ex¬ 
pressing. Human sacrifices were generally 
prevalent. The Syrians, Arabians, Phoeni¬ 
cians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Germans, Bri¬ 
tons, Greeks, Romans, and other nations, 
united in these murderous rites. The Car¬ 
thaginians, on one occasion, offered 200 chil¬ 
dren belongingto some of the principal fam¬ 
ilies to Moloch, or Saturn.f 

Other most cruel rites were practiced by 
different pagans; and by those very nations 
whom children and youth are absurdly and 
unchristianly taught to admire. Baal’s 
priests slashed themselves with knives.— 
This too was done in the worship of Isis.— 
At one of the festivals of Bacchus, his priests 
tore and devoured the raw and reeking en¬ 
trails of goats. In the processions of Cybe- 
le, the previously mangled priests made hid¬ 
eous howlings, and cut themselves till the 
blood gushed. This worship was part of 
the public religion of admired Rome. At 
Sparta, boys were frequently whipped to 
death on the altar of Diana; and Potter 
says, that Bacchus had an altar in Arcadia, 
where a great many young damsels were 

* Lelanrl, p. i. c. 5. 

\ he land, v. i. p. 187, &o. 


170 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


beaten to death with rods. On the impuri¬ 
ty of paganism, Leland observes, 

<c As some of the heathen rites were cruel 
and inhuman, others were no less remarka¬ 
ble for all manner of licentiousness. Many 
of their rites were indecent and impure.”— 
To such an extent was this the case, that 
the most shameless wickedness not merely 
was practiced by the worshippers, but con¬ 
stituted apart of the worship. This was the 
case in various Greek and Roman rites.— 
The Greeks had a goddess of wantonness, 
and one temple at Corinth, with which were 
connected a thousand women of abandoned 
character. In fact, various shocking abom¬ 
inations made a partxof the religion of the 
Gentiles. Some of these were so horridly 
impure, that it might have been supposed 
none but demons could invent, and none but 
persons possessed by demons practise them. 
Yet they were practiced by men, by women, 
and not merely under the cover of darkness, 
but in the face of day. But a veil must be 
thrown over the disgusting subject of pagan 
impurity. It is too vile to be expressed.— 
In Leland’s work, already referred to, arc 
many particulars brought to view, calculated 
to shock the feelings of every well-disposed 
mind, but also calculated to produce a deep 
impression of the value of the holy gospel. 
Little do Christians know what they do, 
who admire the ancient Greeks and Romans. 
More reasonable were it to admire the great 
majority of criminals,who die on the gallows 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


171 


for their crimes, than those nations whose 
very religion was worse than the crimes for 
which these criminals suffer. It may, indeed, 
be confidently asserted, that the tendency of 
the most celebrated systems of ancient pa¬ 
ganism was the same as is that of modern 
heathenism. As the latter now is, so the 
former were adapted to form man to the im¬ 
age of Satan, and to degrade him below the 
brute. One effect is accomplished by their 
cruelty, the other by their impurity. Whence 
such systems sprung, no reasonable person 
need hesitate to determine. 

3. When such were the gods, and such the 
religion of the world, it is easy to conjec¬ 
ture what the people would be. It is true 
they had some good laws, but these were 
so intermingled with others of an opposite de¬ 
scription, that their manners were dissolute 
to a degree of which many have little con¬ 
ception. Ancient and modern writers have 
extolled the laws of Lycurgus. Plutarch 
says, that he was pronounced rather a god 
than a man, and speaks of him as a perfect, 
wise man, who obliged the world with a na¬ 
tion of philosophers. The Spartans sac¬ 
rificed to him as a god; and Aristotle extolled 
him, ns deserving higher honor than this.— 
Yet this man, whom the most celebrated pa¬ 
gan philosophers extolled, and modern infi¬ 
dels have admired, encouraged thieving.—• 
The Spartan boys were trained to steal, and 
were whipped unmercifully if detected, not 
for thieving, but for their want of skill. By 


172 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


another of his institutions he encouraged 
the murdering of the Helotes or slaves. He 
sanctioned the exposure of deformed chil¬ 
dren. Every father was obliged by the laws 
to bring his child to be examined by persons 
appointed, and if it were deformed, or of a 
bad constitution, it was cast into a deep 
cavern. Some of his other institutions were 
adapted to pollute all the young, and to en¬ 
courage among the more mature the most 
shameless vice. The people were conse¬ 
quently impure, proud and perfidious. Such 
was this nation of philosophers, and such 
would nations of philosophers be now. 

In other parts of Greece, the custom of ex¬ 
posing children prevailed. Aristotle express¬ 
ly says, that it should be a law not to bring 
up any weak or maimed child; and that if 
the laws of the country forbade this practice, 
the number of children should be limited by 
Jaw, and any above that number be destroy¬ 
ed. The laws of several of the Grecian states 
encourage the wickedness with which the 
heathens are charged in the Epistle to the 
Romans. 

The Romans also used to expose their de¬ 
formed children, which was practised even 
in Seneca’s time. The ancient Romans ap¬ 
pear to have been allowed by Romulus to de¬ 
stroy all their female children, except the 
eldest. The custom of gladiatorial shows 
prevailed universally among the Romans.— 
Not merely men, but the women, divested of 
compassion, took a pleasure in seeing the 


1 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 173 

combatants kill each other. So frequent 
were these shows, and so great the number 
killed, that Lipsius says, no war occasioned 
such slaughter as these sports of pleasure, 
throughout the several provinces of the vast 
Roman empire. Like the Greeks, ''the Ro¬ 
mans were so sunk in horrid vices, that the 
Apostle’s assertion applies with all its force 
to them: “ It is a shame even to speak of 
the things that are done by them in se¬ 
cret.” 

4. So far were the celebrated philosophers 
of antiquity from instructing and reforming 
the darkened nations, that by their specu¬ 
lations they increased the darkness; and by 
their infamous examples encouraged all 
manner of vice. Many of them were actual 
atheists,and denied the existence of any God- 
Others of them encouraged the idolatrous 
superstitions that they could not, and did 
not believe. Varro, after exposing the cru¬ 
el and impure rites of their deities, adds, “A 
wise man will observe all these things, not 
indeed as acceptable to the gods, but as com¬ 
manded by the laws.” This hypocritical sys¬ 
tem appears to have been prevalent among 
them. Thus would they honor as gods the 
images they despised; and join in the rites 
they pronounced ridiculous or obscene.— 
They themselves were in darkness. Aristotle 
says, As the eyes of bats are to the bright¬ 
ness of the daylight, so also is the under¬ 
standing of our souls towards those things 
which are by nature the most manifest of all.” 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


174 


Hence, while some were atheists, others 
maintained that fire is God;* that this world 
is an animal endued with intelligence; that 
it is happy, reasonable and wise; and that 
this world is Gotl.f Hence they supposed 
their souls part of the divine soul, and cor¬ 
poreal things parts of the body of God.— 
Marcus Antoninus, the persecutor of the 
Christians, thus adored the world: in one of 
his prayers he says, u whatsoever is agree¬ 
able to thee, O comely world, is agreeable 
to me.” Plato has several passages con¬ 
taining an express acknowledgement of one 
supreme God, but he did not think it proper 
or safe to communicate such things to the 
people. Instead of proposing God to them 
as the object of their worship, he recom¬ 
mends them to trust in, depend on, and wor¬ 
ship the sun, moon, and stars, and the gods 
established by the laws. Thus when he 
knew God, he glorified him not as God, but 
became vain in his imaginations, and his 
foolish heart was darkened; and he did 
what in him lay to darken others.£ Cicero 
recommended the same kind of worship, and 
prescribed not only that of the greater of the 
Homan gods, but also that of Hercules, Rom¬ 
ulus, &c. together with that of the household 
gods; and binds it as a duty upon people in 
these things to follow the religion of their 


* Nichol’s Conference, v. i. p. 179. 
j Leland, p. i. c. 7. Ib. p.i. c.9. Ib. p.i. c. 
was the sentiment of Varro, and appears to liavo 
of Cicero and the Stoics. 

} Leland, part i.c. 12. p.29G. 


13. This 
been that 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


175 


nncestors. So far was this admired man 
from indulging concern to know his Maker, 
that he spoke of the Jewish religion as a 
barbarous superstition. Socrates sanctioned 
idolatry; when about to die, he ordered a 
cock to be sacrificed to Esculapius. With 
respect to the immortality of the soul and of 
a future state for man, they were equally per¬ 
plexed, and equally ignorant. When Cicero 
wrote to prove the immortality of the soul, 
he represents the contrary as a prevalent 
opinion: and according to him, a strange 
confusion existed among the philosophers on 
this subject. “ Some said, it (the soul) was 
the heart, others the blood, others the brain, 
others the breath, others fire, others said it 
was nothing but an empty name, others that 
it was harmony, others that it was num¬ 
ber. 5 ’* Many held it to be not distinct 
from the body; and others who thought it dis¬ 
tinct supposed it extinguished at death or soon 
after. Seneca, who has some sublime 
thoughts on the immortality of the soul, 
elsewhere represents this belief as a kind of 
pleasing dream. In one of his epistles, he 
speaks of having been apparently near death, 
and mentions what then supported him, not 
a hope full of immortality, but a belief that 
after death he should be as insensible as be¬ 
fore he was born.f Epictetus takes no no¬ 
tice of future rewards and punishments, but 

* Cic. de Leg. 1. ii. c. 8. Leland, p. i. c. 19. p. 448. Ib. 
p. iii. c. 3. Ib. v. ii. 317. 4 to edition. 

f Seneca; Epis. 55, & 102. ed. CoranieJin. 




176 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


says, that at death, men return to the ele 
ments of which they were made. The empe¬ 
ror Marcus Antoninus appears to have sup¬ 
posed, that after death, the soul is dissipated 
and dispersed.* These three last philoso¬ 
phers lived after the promulgation of the gos¬ 
pel, and two of them appear to have noticed 
its professors in their writings, but, they 
were too full of philosophic pride to embrace 
that humbling system, they lived and died, 
with all their fancied wisdom, miserable 
heathens. The Pythagoreans, like the mod¬ 
ern Brahmins, maintained that the soul after 
death passes into other bodies, those of men 
or beasts; and their founder, Pythagoras, to 
confirm this doctrine, uttered the base and 
scandalous falsehood, that he had undergone 
several such transmigrations, professing to 
name the persons whom his soul had anima¬ 
ted through a succession of ages. Socrates 
also, with respect to the bulk of mankind, 
held the transmigration of souls; and thought 
those of bad men entered the bodies of asses, 
wolves, hawks, kites, &c., and those of good 
men into animals of a kind and social nature, 
as bees, ants, &c.: or else returned to human 
bodies.} Cicero evidently loved the doctrine 
of a future state, but, as it is well known, 
speaks of it with uncertainty and doubt. 

The learned Jacob Bryant has collected 
some important testimonies on the subject 
of this section. He remarks: 

“ The uncertainty, under which mankind 

* Leland, p. iii, c. 3. p. 327. 329. j Leland, p. iii. c.4. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


177 


labored, is further described by that moral 

poet Euripides in his Hipolytus; where he 

speaks of the misery and blindness of people 

in this world, and their doubts in respect to 

futuritv: 

•/ 

“ The life of man is all a scene of care, 

Which knows no intermission. When it’s past, 
Should there he any future bliss, it lies 
In cloud, and dreary darkness, unreveal’d. 

Yet we, too fondly led by what we feel, 

Prize the brief sunshine of this fleeting life, 

Anxious: because we have neither view, nor hope, 

Of aught hereafter. Thus we darkling rove, 

Amus’d with fables and poetic dreams.” 

The poet Moschus writes to the same pur¬ 
pose in his epitaph upon Bion: 

“ Alas! the mallow in the garden fair, 

And herbs, and flowers, may fade: but they again 
Rise up to life, and have their birth renew’d. 

Rut we, the great, the powerful, and wise, 

Soon as we sink oblivious, there ensues 
A deep, a deadly, ever-during sleep, 

From whence we wake no more.” 

“ Hence Seneca in the Troades makes a 
person say, £ There is nothing in death: and 
death itself is nothing. 5 And in Sallust we 
read to the same purpose the words of Julias 
Cesar,‘ Death is a dissolution of all mortal 
evils. Beyond it there is no room for either 
happiness or care. 5 55 

Catullus writes, 

tl My Losbia, let us live, and let us love, 

Suns set and rise again, but we when once 
Our hasty day concludes, shall sleep through one 
Eternal night.” 

5. In pursuing the subject it may be ob¬ 
served, that increasing refinement did not 

12 


178 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


promote moral purity, nor science diminish 
vice. Instead of that, as they advanced in 
civilization, the heathen sunk deeper in re¬ 
ligious debasement; and their philosophers 
were among the most vicious and abandon¬ 
ed. Plutarch states in his life of Nuina, that 
he forbade the Romans to represent God un¬ 
der the form of man or beast; nor was there 
any graven or painted image admitted among 
them formerly; and that for 160 years they 
built temples, but made no image. Juvenal 
(Sat. xiii.) observes, that in ancient times 
they had not such a crowd of gods as they 
worshipped afterwards. Thus they appear 
to have had some juster ideas of God, but, 
according to the apostle’s statement, they 
changed the glory of the uncorruptible God 
into an image made like to corruptible man; 
professing themselves wise they became fools, 
for the more their fancied wisdom increased, 
the more their foolish gods multiplied. In 
fact, the philosophers were so far from con¬ 
verting men from idolatry and vice, that 
they patronized both in their maxims, and by 
their practice. 

Plato, with others, maintains the lawful¬ 
ness of lying, and advises governors to lie 
to their subjects and enemies. With him, 
the Stoics held that a wise man might make 
use of a lie many ways. This same admir¬ 
ed philosopher, who was called the divine 
Plato, and who, Cicero says, w r as a kind of 
god among the philosophers, in a book in 
which he designed to give a perfect model 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


179 


of ft well-ordered state, recommends a num¬ 
ber of practices too abominable and impure 
to be mentioned in these pages.* Others 
represented various vices as not base, and 
maintained that the opinion that they were 
so, was tc agreed upon for the sake of re- 
strainingjfoofo.” The most wicked practices 
that can be mentioned they maintained to be 
reasonable and harmless.f 

6. While such were the doctrines of the 
philosophers, we need not wonder that their 
practice accorded with their precepts. Plato, 
Socrates,Xenophon,Solon,Zeno, are all rep¬ 
resented as dreadfully impure; and Cicero 
declares that the philosophers not merely 
practiced, but gloried in their crimes^ The 
vaunted Epictetus extols Diogenes as a 
model and pattern of virtue, sent by Jupiter 
to instruct men concerning good and evil, 
and calls him the divine Diogenes; yet this 
same divine Diogenes associated with aban¬ 
doned women, and practiced vice too shame¬ 
ful even to mention in these pages. “ Dio¬ 
genes and the Cynics generally taught, that 
parents may lawfully sacrifice and eat their 
children; and that there is neither sin nor 
shame in the grossest and most publick acts 
of lewdness. Both Zeno and Cleanthes 
taught, that children may as lawfully roast 
and eat their parents as any other food.”§ 

* Leland, p. ii. c; 12. Ib. p. iic.8. 

f Ib. p. ii. c. 6. 

j Jb. p. iii. c. 3. 

$ Dwight’s first Sermon on Infidel Philosophy. 


180 


THE DITINE ORIGIN 


The hateful tale might be continued, but it 
may be better to pause. A number of the 
men that have been mentioned, are among 
the most respectable of those, whose systems 
modern philosophers prefer to that of Christ 
and his apostles. 

7. The pride of these men was not less 
shocking than their abominable vices. E- 
pictetus, one of those whom modern infi¬ 
dels admire, says, tc As to the body, thou 
art a small part of the universe; but in re¬ 
spect of the mind or reason, neither worse 
nor less than the gods. Will you not place 
your good there where you are equal to the 
gods?” In opposition to the threatening, 
“I will fetter thee,” he answers, “Fetter 
me! thou wilt fetter my feet: but Jupiter 
himself cannot overcome my choice.”* Plu¬ 
tarch represents the Stoics as asserting, that 
“ the man who does not come short of the 
gods in virtue, is equally happy with Jupi¬ 
ter, even when he puts an end to his own 
life, provided he be a wise man.” Chrys- 
ippus declares, that “ as it is proper and be¬ 
coming for Jupiter to glory in himself, and 
in his own life, and to think and speak mag¬ 
nificently of himself, so these things are be¬ 
coming all good men, as being in nothing ex¬ 
ceeded by Jupiter.” Seneca says, “ that a 
wiseman lives upon an equality with the 
gods;” and asserts, that Cf God does not ex¬ 
ceed the wise man in happiness, though he 
does in age;” he adds, “ that there is one 
* Epict. cited by Leland, p. ii. c. 9. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


181 


thing in which the wise man excels God, that 
God is wise by the benefit of nature, not by 
his own choice.” Sextius represents the 
wise man as valuing and admiring himself 
above Jupiter, because “ Jupiter cannot 
make use of worldly things, the wise man 
will not.” The same hell-born pride ap¬ 
pears in their high pretensions to self-suffi¬ 
ciency. Epictetus says, “ The condition 
and character of a philosopher is, that he ex¬ 
pects all that might profit or hurt him only 
from himself.” Seneca represents it as 
needless to apply to the gods by prayer, since 
it is in a man’s own power to make himself 
happy; and referring to virtue says, “This 
is the chief good, which, if thou possessest, 
thou wilt begin to be a companion of the 
gods, not a supplicant to them.” Indeed,a t 
other times, he and other Stoics contradicted 
themselves on the subject of prayer. The 
Stoics esteemed humility a vice; and carried 
their pride so far that Heraclitus, a philoso¬ 
pher much admired among them, said, “ I 
shall not build altars to others, but others to 
me ;” and that great philosopher Plautinus, 
when invited by Ameleius to assist at a sac¬ 
rifice he was about to offer to the gods, an¬ 
swered, “ it is for them to come to me, not 
for me to go to them.”* How men, influ¬ 
enced by such a spirit, would treat the hum¬ 
bling doctrines of the gospel it is not difficult 
to conjecture. 

8. Modern infidels have encouraged sui- 
♦ Lclaad, p. li. e. 11. passim. 


132 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


cidc, and ancient heathen philosophers did 
the same. Hume represents suicide as the 
turning a few ounces of blood out of their 
proper channel. Marcus Antoninus repre¬ 
sents it in the same trivial manner. t£ If my 
house be smoky, I go out of it, and why is 
this looked upon as a great matter? 55 Epic¬ 
tetus, the two Plinies, and others, approved 
of it; and Seneca extols Cato’s murder of 
himself as a most glorious action. In fact, the 
Stoics maintained that it was not only lawful, 
but a duty in some cases for a wise man to 
despatch himself.* 

Drunkenness is frequently a kind of grad¬ 
ual suicide, and sinks man lower than the 
brute creation. This vice was practiced or 
approved by many of the most distinguish¬ 
ed heathen philosophers. Zeno, the celebra¬ 
ted founder of the Stoics, is represented as a 
great drinker. Chrysippus died of a surfeit, 
through drinking wine too freely. Seneca 
recommends occasional drunkenness, and 
observes that Solon and Arcesilas indulged 
themselves in it. Plutarch declares that 
Cato of Utica spent whole nights in drinking; 
and the Stoics maintained, that a wise mail 
might be drunken and his body disordered 
with wine, but that it could not hurt his 
mind.f 

9. The stoics professed to teach mutual 
benevolence, yet other parts of their system 
were calculated to produce the most hard- 

* Lelamt. p. ii c. 11. passim. 

t lb- p. ii. c. II • passim. 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


183 


hearted indifference to the wants and miser¬ 
ies of man. Epictetus, one of their most 
grave and judicious authors, having men¬ 
tioned what he says are called great events, 
namely, wars, and the destruction of men and 
cities,asks, “What great matter is there in all 
this? Nothing. What great matter is there in 
the death of numbers of oxen,numbers of sheep, 
or in the burning or pulling down numbers of 
nests of storks or swallows?” He affirms 
that these cases are perfectly alike. “ The 
bodies of men are destroyed, and the bodies of 
sheep and oxen. The houses of men are burnt, 
and the houses or nests of storks. What is 
there great or dreadful in all this?”— 
Seneca says, “ A wise man is not afflicted by 
the loss of his friends or children;” and he 
reckons among the things which should not 
grieve him, “ the besieging of his country, 
the death of his children and the slavery of 
his parents.” Epictetus allows a person to 
groan with one in affliction; but says,— 
■“ Take heed however not to groan inwardly 
too.” They might put on the appearance 
of compassion, but must take care to feel 
none. The same writer compares the death 
of a friend to the breaking of an old pipkin, 
and says, “ Do you not send and buy a new 
one?”* 

10. After this hasty survey of the princi¬ 
ples and practices of ancient heathens, wo 
may with propriety glance at those of mod¬ 
ern infidels. Voltaire says, that M the reli- 

* LeJand p. ii. c. 10. pa3ska. 


184 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


gion of the pagans consisted in nothing but 
morality and festivals.”* What their mor¬ 
ality was, the preceding statements show. 
The morality of their infidel admirers great¬ 
ly resembles theirs. Lord Herbert, the fath¬ 
er of modern infidels, declares, that the in¬ 
dulgence of lust and of anger is no more to 
be blamed than the thirst occasioned by the 
dropsy. Hume maintains that there are no 
solid arguments to prove the existence of a 
God, and that it is unreasonable to believe 
God to be wise and good; that pride and 
self-valuation are virtues; that self-murder 
is lawful and commendable; that adultery 
must be practiced if we would obtain all the 
advantages of life; that female infidelity (or 
adultery) when known is a small thing,when 
unknown nothing. That the external world 
does not exist, or that its existence may be 
reasonably doubted; that the universe exists 
in the mind, and that the mind does not ex¬ 
ist. Lord Bolingbroke teaches, that ambi¬ 
tion, the desire of power, avarice, and sensu¬ 
ality may be lawfully gratified, if they can 
be gratified safely; that man’s chief end is to 
gratify the appetites and inclinations of the 
flesh; that modesty is inspired by mere 
prejudice; that adultery is no violation of 
the religion of nature; and that there is no 
wrong in lewdness, except in the highest in¬ 
cest.! Diderot advised his friend Wilkes to 
associate with women of abandoned charac- 

* Hist. Louis XIV. 

t Dwight on Infidel Philosophy, Sermon 1. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


185 


ter.* Voltaire, in latter life, doubted of the 
existence of any God. Toland believed the 
world to be God.f Godwin maintains that 
marriage is an improper monopoly. Tindal 
makes the doctrine of forgiving injuries an 
objection to the gospel morality .% Bayle 
approves of revenge. Chubb thinks prayer 
improper, and perhaps displeasing to the De¬ 
ity^ Many or most modern infidels have deni-* 
ed the immortality of the soul, and a state of 
future retribution; and the National Assem¬ 
bly of France, when composed of Infidels, de¬ 
clared death an eternal sleep. 

Were such principles to be brought into 
general action, what a scene of debauchery, 
desolation, and vice would this world be¬ 
come! Referring to the indulgence allowed 
licentious passions in the doctrines of infidels, 
an excellent writer well remarks, “ Lewd¬ 
ness alone, extended as their doctrines extend 
it, would exterminate every moral feeling 
from the human breast, and every moral and 
virtuous action from the human conduct; 
Sodom would cease to be a proverbial name; 
and Gomorrah would be remembered only 
to wonder at her unhappy lot, and to drop 
the tear of sympathy upon her ashes .” 

11. Where men, whatever at other times 
they may talk of virtue, adopt and teach such 
principles as those detailed in the last section, 

* Letter of Diderot in Sir William Jones’ Life, 
f Leland, p. ii. c. 8. 

j Dwight, an author to whom I am Indebted for various 
statements included in this section. 

$ lb. p i. c. 17. 


186 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


it is natural to expect that their practice will 
resemble their doctrines. And it has done 
so. 

“ Herbert, Hobbes, Shaftesbury, Wool- 
ston, Tindal, Chubb, and Bolingbroke were 
all guilty of the vile hypocrisy of professing 
to love and reverence Christianity, while 
they were employed in no other design than 
to destroy it. Such faithless professions, 
such gross violations of truth, in Christians, 
would have been proclaimed to the universe 
by these very writers as infamous desertions 
of principle and decency. Are they less in¬ 
famous in themselves? All hypocrisy is de¬ 
testable; but I know of none so detestable as 
that which is coolly written, with full pre¬ 
meditation, by a man of talents, assuming 
the character of a moral and religious in¬ 
structor, a minister, a prophet of the truth of 
the infinite God! 

“ The morals of Rochester and Wharton 
need no comment. Woolston was a gross 
blasphemer. Blount solicited his sister-in- 
law to marry him, and, being refused, shot 
himself. Tindal was originally a protes- 
tant, then turned papist, then protestant a- 
gaiu, merely to suit the times, and was at 
the same time infamous for vice in general, 
and the total want of principle. He is said 
to have died with this prayer in his mouth, 
f if there is a God, I desire that he may have 
mercy on me.’ Hobbes wrote his Levia¬ 
than to serve the cause of Charles I., but 
finding him fail of success, he turned it to 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


187 


the defence of Cromwell, and made a merit 
of this fact to the usurper, as Hobbes himself 
unblushingly declared to Lord Clarendon.— 
Morgan had no regard to truth; as is evident 
from his numerous falsifications of scripture, 
as well as from the vile hypocrisy of profes¬ 
sing himself a Christian in those very wri¬ 
tings in which he labours to destroy Chris¬ 
tianity. Voltaire, in a letter now remaining, 
requested his friend D’Alembert to tell for 
him a direct and palpable lie, by denying 
that he was the author of the Philosophical 
Dictionary. D’Alembert in his answer in¬ 
formed him, that he had told the lie. Vol¬ 
taire has indeed expressed his own moral 
character perfectly in the following words: 
c Monsieur Abbe, I must be read, no matter 
whether i am believed or not.” He also 
solemnly professed to believe the catholic re¬ 
ligion, although at the same time he doubted 
the existence of a God. Hume died as a fool 
dieth. The day before his death he spent in 
a pitiful and affected unconcern about this 
tremendous subject,playing at whist, reading 
Lucian’s dialogues, and making silly at¬ 
tempts at wit concerning his interview with 
Charon, the heathen ferry-man of Hades. 

“ It will easily be supposed that my infor¬ 
mation concerning the private lives of these 
men must be distantand imperfect; what has 
been said will, however, furnish any one at 
all acquainted with the human character, 
with just ideas of their morality. I shall on¬ 
ly add, that Rousseau (Jean Jaques) is as- 


188 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


serted to have been guilty of gross theft, per¬ 
jury, fornication, and adultery; and of ab¬ 
juring and assuming, alternately, the catho¬ 
lic and the protestant religion, neither of 
which he believed.”* 

Rosseau himself confesses his thieving, 
and other vices. As for Paine, if possible, 
he was worse in his morals than even Rous¬ 
seau; and such a filthy and disgusting drunk¬ 
ard, that in the latter part of his life it was 
difficult to find a person that would take the 
care of him. 

12. There is no doubt that, among the 
merely nominal professors of Christianity, a 
dreadful mass of vice exists; yet among those 
who never felt the saving power of religion, 
multitudes have a curb placed on their vices 
by the Christian system. Where infidelity 
prevails, this check is removed, and men 
precipitate themselves headlong into the low¬ 
est sinks of iniquity. France, after the rev¬ 
olution, when infidelity triumphed, present¬ 
ed an awful illustration of this remark. “ In 
the republican year ending September 23, 
1803, by the report of the prefect of police to 
the grand judge for the district of Paris, the 
number of suicides was, men 490, women 
167, total 657. Of persons murdered, men 
81, women 69, total 150. Of divorces 644. 
Of murderers executed 155. Among those 
executed were seven fathers who had poison¬ 
ed their children ; ten husbands who murder¬ 
ed their wives ; six wives who poisoned their 

* Dwight on Infidel Philosophy. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 18& 

husbands ; and fifteen children who murder¬ 
ed their parents.”* 

That well-known writer, Zimmerman, has 
furnished an awful account of the effect of 
infidel principles at Berlin. He observes 
that the king (Frederic) wished his subjects 
to think freely ; and that every thing in mo¬ 
rals and religion “ degenerated into a kind of 
mental anarchy, both at court, and in the 
city. Notwithstanding the situation of af¬ 
fairs, Frederic never showed any inclination 
for restoring order ; and the result was, that 
irreligion and deism became fashionable. 
Some of those men, who called themselves 
enlightened, opposed every restraint on opin¬ 
ions ; and enlightened women set no bounds 
on their inclinations and passions.” They 
accordingly indulged freely and unblushingly 
in the grossest licentiousness. 

<£ Several of the women were unfaithful 
to their husbands, because they were deists, 
that is, so very enlightened women. Female 
infidelity and divorces became as common at 
Berlin, as they were at the most corrupted 
period of the Roman empire. Some of the 
most enlightened people of fashion instituted 
dances in which they danced naked. This 
pretended light made no where so much pro¬ 
gress as at Potsdam. The principles of deism, 
and this progress of reason, were there carried 
to such a length, as some officers of the king’s 
household informed me, that, during the last 


* Dwight’a Theology, Sermon 31. 


190 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


ten years, above three hundred people had 
committed suicide at Potsdam only.”* 

13. And now, having surveyed that divine¬ 
ly benevolent system, that would change the 
desert of this world into the garden of the 
Lord, and having contrasted with it the im¬ 
purity, folly, and vice encouraged by ancient 
heathen and modern infidel philosophers, are 
you not indeed ready to bind the gospel to 
your heart ? These systems are so opposite, 
that both cannot come from the same source. 
Which is from heaven, and which from hell ? 
Compare, I will not say the character of Jesus, 
I will not for a moment degrade my Lord, by 
suggesting a comparison between his spotless 
excellence, and the polluted beings heathen¬ 
ism and infidelity produces; better were it 
to compare the light of eternal day with the 
gloom of the infernal prison; but compare 
his precepts with the precepts of the wisest 
philosophers that knew him not, and O what 
a glorious attestation must every unpreju¬ 
diced mind see springing from the compari¬ 
son, to the divine origin of his instructions! 
Compare the character and instructions of 
his apostles, in themselves but erring mortal 
men, with those of the most distinguished 
heathen philosophers; Paul’s humility with 
Plato’s pride; their chaste purity with the 
infamous licentiousness of Solon and Zeno, 
and Xenophon and Diogenes, and even of 
Socrates himself; their temperance in prac- 

* Zimmerrnan ’3 interesting conversations between Frederic 
the Third, &c. 


OP CHRISTIANITY, 


191 


ticc and precept with the philosophers’drunk- 
enness; their patience under suffering with 
the cowardly suicide philosophers encourag¬ 
ed; their benevolent love with the hard, un¬ 
feeling apathy of Seneca and Epictetus; and 
all their elevated representations of God, and 
love to him, with the paltry gods these phi¬ 
losophers, at least in profession, adored; 
and the inhuman and polluted rites, by which 
those gods were worshipped; do this, ancl un¬ 
less you love darkness rather than light be¬ 
cause your deeds are evil, you cannot hesi¬ 
tate which system came from hell, and which 
from heaven. If you would pursue the com¬ 
parison further, contrast the doctrines and 
characters of the apostles with those of mod¬ 
ern infidels; the holy instructions of the for¬ 
mer with the baneful doctrines of the latter; 
the salutary food they offer to your soul with 
the dry husks and poison which Hume pre¬ 
sents; their open sincerity with the gross 
hypocrisy of Herbert and Hobbes, and Tin- 
dal and Bolingbroke; their love and rever¬ 
ence for God with the blasphemies of Wools- 
ton and Voltaire; their almost blameless 
lives with the abominable profligacy of Rous¬ 
seau and Paine; and their peaceful depart¬ 
ure, exemplified in the language of one of 
them, “ I know whom I have believed—I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteous¬ 
ness, which the Lord the righteous Judge 
shall give ine at tkat day,” with the pitiful 


192 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


death of Hume endeavoring to utter some 
contemptible jests in his last hours, about 
his interview with Charon, the heathen fer¬ 
ryman of Hades; make this contrast with an 
unprejudiced mind, and it will be so plain in 
your view, that the unlettered men of Gali¬ 
lee, as much in real worth excel these self-im¬ 
portant philosophers, as it is plain that health 
is better than the plague, virtue than vice, 
light than darkness, and smiling plenty than 
desolating famine. 

14. There is indeed one other prevalent 
religious system in the world, which has not 
yet been noticed on this occasion; it is the 
system of Mahomet. With respect to him, 
it may be sufficient to observe that he furnish¬ 
es in his own writings enough to prove him an 
impious impostor. He professes great respect 
to the character of Jesus,and describes him as 
the chief of all prophets, and the Word of 
God. He speaks of his miraculous powers, 
as well as those of his disciples, and particu¬ 
larly of his raising dead persons to life.* And 
thus, in allowing Jesus to be sent from God, 
he granted enough to overthrow his own sys¬ 
tem, which is so different from that of him 
whom he allows to have been the Word of 
God. Perhaps it may be useful to state a 
few more brief particulars on this subject. 

Mahomet was born about six hundred 
years after the death of Christ. After hav¬ 
ing obtained some disciples, he at length had 
recourse to arms; and inspiring his soldiers 
* Kor. c. 3. 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


1*3 

with an enthusiastic valor, carried desolation 
and destruction wherever he went. On ono 
occasion, in cold blood, he ordered seven 
hundred prisoners to be beheaded, under the 
most aggravating circumstances of cruelty. 
H is religion was propagated by the sword.— 
The alternative proposed to vanquished na¬ 
tions, was death or conversion to his religion.. 
His precepts to his followers \vere, £ ‘ Kill the 
idolaters wherever ye shall find them,and tak* 
them prisoners wherever ye shall hud them; 
and besiege them, and lay wait for then) in 
every convenient place. When ye encoun¬ 
ter the unbelievers, strike off their heads, un¬ 
til ye have made a great slaughter of them; 
and bind them in bonds. Whoso fighteth 
for God’s true religion, God will not suffer 
his woi'ks to perish.” Thus was the system 
spread abroad by Mahomet and his successors. 

Mahomet in his own life was debauched to 
excess; professing that he had a permission 
from God to cohabit, not. merely with more 
wives than others, but with his nieces, and 
any believing woman. He permitted his fol¬ 
lowers to have four wives, and to indulge 
their vicious inclinations with as many wom¬ 
en as they could maintain. Ke makes the 
chief duty of his disciples to consist in exter¬ 
nal ablutions, and stated repetitions of pray¬ 
er, with some appointed ceremonies; and 
these he extends to the life to come. Ho 
maintained that there will be marriage in 
the other world, and represents gross and de¬ 
basing sensuality as the happiness of heaven. 

t ° 

1 



. 194 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


This system universally produces a fierce, 
bloody, intolerant disposition, and is the pa¬ 
rent of ignorance, cruelty, and oppres¬ 
sion. 

It is surely unnecessary to make a compari¬ 
son between this system and Christianity, to 
prove which is divine. 

15. To what has been offered on the di¬ 
vine origin of the blessed gospel, permit me 
now to add the testimonies of some of its 
friends and some of its enemies. It has 
been said, 

“ Leaving tlio old, boili worlds at once they view, 

Who stand upon the threshold of the new.” 

The testimonies of Christians near death 
have peculiar force, and not less weighty are 
the mournful confessions of expiring infi¬ 
dels. 

Come then, my friend, into the Christian’s 
dying chamber. See in that chair, designed 
for ease, but not easy to him, a patient suf¬ 
ferer, worn out with pain and disease. He 
is dying. Mark his words: cc How thank¬ 
ful am I for death, as it is the passage through 
which I go to the Lord and Giver of eternal 
life, and as it frees me from all the misery 
which you see me now endure, and which I 
am willing to endure as long as God thinks 
fit; for I know that he will, by and by, in 
his own good time, dismiss me from the body. 
These afflictions are but for a moment, and 
then comes an eternal weight of glory. 0 ! 
welcome, welcome death! thou mayest well 
bv reckoned among the treasures of the 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


1§5 


Christian; to live is Christ, and to die is 
gain. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace, according to thy most holy 
and comfortable word, for mine eyes have 
seen thy most precious and comfortable sal¬ 
vation.—Here is my cordial; and what are 
all the cordials given to support the dying, 
in comparison to that which arises from 
the promises of salvation by Christ? This, 
this supports me ! ,J 

Look at him again; the power of speech 
is almost gone, yet hear his dying lips utter 
one expression more, “ Precious salva¬ 
tion. 55 * The conflict is over,.he is gone.— 
Let us go hence. There is another chamber 
of death; behold the expiring sufferer that 
lies upon that bedf—Listen, he is speaking 
to a young heir of nobility and wealth. 

“ You see the situation I am in; I have 
not many days to live; I am glad you have 
an opportunity of witnessing the tranquili¬ 
ty of my last moments. But it is not tran¬ 
quility and composure alone; it is joy and 
triumph; it is complete exultation. 55 —Ob¬ 
serve his features kindle, his voice rise, while 
pointing to a Bible, he adds, “ And whence 
does this exultation spring?—From that 
book—from that book,too much neglected in¬ 
deed, but which contains invaluable treas¬ 
ures ! treasures of joy and rejoicing! for it 
makes us certain that this mortal shall put on 
immortality. 55 

* Hervey. 

t William Leechman. 



136 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


Let. u3 enter the chamber in which anoth¬ 
er Christian dies. He has devoted his days 
to the study and illustration of the scrip¬ 
tures. He has exposed the sophistries of the 
infidel Hume, and shown his vaunted argu¬ 
ments against the gospel to be utterly falla¬ 
cious and contemptible. The end of his 
days is now at hand; death is putting to the 
severest test the value of the principles he 
has advocated. Near him are his wife and 
niece weeping in the prospect of his imme¬ 
diate dissolution. Just now he seemed ex¬ 
piring, but a cordial has unexpectedly reviv¬ 
ed him. The power of speech for a few 
minutes returns. Now he looks on his 
mourning relatives, and tells them, that he 
wonders to see their countenances covered 
with tears in the apprehension of his depart¬ 
ure, and adds, “At that instant 1 felt my 
mind in such a state, in the thoughts of my 
immediate dissolution, that I can express my 
feelings in no other way, than by saying that 

1 Was IN A RAPTURE. 53 * 

He too is gone to rest. Shall we go to 
one other house of death? and see one 
Christian more expire? There another dies! 
he has devoted his life to the service of the 
gospel; he has advocated by his pen the ho¬ 
ly cause of Jesus; he has exposed the abom¬ 
inations of paganism, and the sophistry and 
vicious maxims of infidels. Now mark his 
closing testimony. “ I give my dying tes¬ 
timony to the truth of Christianity. The 

* Georja Campbell. 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


197 


promises of the gospel are my support and 
consolation : they, alone, yield me satisfac¬ 
tion in a dying hour. I am not afraid to die. 
The gospel of Christ has raised me above the 
fear of death; for I know that my Redeemer 
liveth.”* 

Now let us wander to a very different 
scene. Let us enter the chambers where in¬ 
fidels are dying. There lies Voltaire. He 
has long opposed the gospel; and concluded 
his letters to infidel friends,with “ Crush the 
wretch .’ 5 But now he is overwhelmed with 
horror and despair; not a gleam of hope 
breaks in upon his soul. He curses his for¬ 
mer companions in infidelity, and exclaims, 
“ Retire! It is you that have brought rne to 
my present state! Begone! I could have 
done without you all; but you could not exist 
without me! And what a wretched glory 
have you procured me?” 

Now he exclaims, “ O Christ! O Jesus 
Christ!” Then utters with horror, “ I am a- 
bandoned by God and man.” Alternately 
he supplicates and blasphemes the God he has 
denied. Wretched man ! wretched fame which 
infidelity obtained him!f Let us enter the dy¬ 
ing chamber of another infidel; J he is dying 
a martyr; a martyr to drunkenness and bran¬ 
dy. No bright hopes cheer the last moments 
of this debauched apostle of infidelity. Ask 

♦John Leland. 
f See Simpson’s Plea, &c. &c. 

J T. Paine. See Cheetham’s Life of this man, &c. 


198 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


him, “What think you of Jesus now?” his 
mournful moans, his bitter cries, give a forc¬ 
ed but unwilling reply : he exclaims, “ O 
Lord help me! O Lord, help me! O Christ, 
help me! 0 Christ,help me!” He confesses to 
one, who had burnt his Age of Reason, that 
he wished all who had read it had been as 
wise as he; and adds, “ If ever the devil had 
an agent on earth I have been one.” And 
when apprehending immediate dissolution, 
exclaims, “ I think 1 can say, what they make 
Jesus Christ to say, My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me?” At length he dies, 
but notwithstanding all the horrors of con¬ 
science, a stranger to real penitence; having 
probably sinned that sin which admits of no 
repentance. We need go no further: these 
apostles of infidelity, like malefactors con¬ 
fessing their crimes at the gallows, have, in 
their dying horrors, confessed that they could 
not disbelieve that religion they had labored 
to destroy. Whence the cries, O Christ! O 
Jesus Christ! Lord, help me! Christ,help me! 
but from an inward conviction,that Christiani¬ 
ty is divine. They had doubtless been against 
the Bible, because the Bible was against 
them; and now, like the demons the Savior 
ejected, they confessed him, in whose mercy 
they could no longer find a part. 


Or CHRISTIANITY. 


199 


CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 

1. To those who doubt the truth of Christianity—2. 

To those who doubt its peculiar doctrines—3. To 

nominal Christians —4. To the sincerely pious. 

1. As you have now surveyed the evidence 
for the divine origin of Christianity which 
has been adduced in the preceding treatise, 
the question may be proposed, What is the 
effect upon your mind ? Do you still hesitate 
to acknowledge the claims of the gospel, and 
to confess its divinity? If you do; by all that 
is dear to you, be persuaded to continue your 
investigation till you can refute the evidence 
offered for Christianity, or rill you yield to 
its force. This is what wisdom would dic¬ 
tate if there were but one species of evidence; 
but when there are so many , when miracles 
—prophecies—the holy tendency of the reli¬ 
gion—the acknowledgments of its enemies— 
and the testimonies of millions of its martyr¬ 
ed friends, all unite in its support, and when, 
if it is divine, your eternal state is connected 
with your decision, O trifle not with a ques¬ 
tion so important. Trifling is madness here. 
But if such is mere neglect, what language 
can describe the guilt and infatuation of treat¬ 
ing with contempt a religion which you can¬ 
not but feel may, after all the ridicule that 
scoffers can cast upon it, prove divine. If 
ever inclined to this extreme of wickedness, 
O consider you cannot “ pull down the spa¬ 
cious fabric of heaven, or undermine the pro- 


201) 


TH.E DIVINE ORIGIN 


found abyss of hell, by a profane scoff,” nor 
can you dethrone the Son of God by all your 
“ philosophic wit called argument,” nor by 
the grosser sarcasms of hardened irnpiety. 
Perhaps you laugh; but will you laugh in 
misery ? Perhaps you jest; but will you jest 
in hell! Perhaps you call that place of woe 
a bugbear: will you on a dying bed? did Vol¬ 
taire? did Paine? did the unhappy infidel, 
who cried, “ O thou blasphemed, yet most 
indulgent Lord God! hell itself is a refuge, if 
it hide me from thy frown?” 

O listen not to the delusions of unbelief, 
and the suggestions of an infernal foe. Rath¬ 
er seek mercy. Flee from the wrath to come. 
Is not death already clad in terrors? Then 
turn to him who would take its sting away. 

It has been the fashion with some writers 
against Christianity, to represent it as need¬ 
less, and to assert that human reason is a suf¬ 
ficient guide to virtue and happiness. What 
were the instructions of those who had but 
this guide, and who were destitute of reve¬ 
lation, let the last chapter answer; and what 
are their instructions now let the state of 
modern pagan nations show. 

Perhaps you urge that objections may he 
started against Christianity. True; but 
there is nothing against which human inge¬ 
nuity, combined with human folly , cannot raise 
various objections. If you will believe no 
truth, against which objections are started, 
you must believe that neither God, nor man, 
nor earth, nor heaven exists. Soon after 


OP CHRISTIANITY. 


20! 


the conquest of Canada by this country, Dr. 
Johnson was conversing respecting some who 
deny the divine origin of Christianity, when 
lie said, “ It is always easy to be on the neg¬ 
ative side. If a man were to deny that there 
is salt upon the table you could not re¬ 
duce him to an absurdity. Come, let us 
try this a little further. I deny that Canada 
is taken, and I can support my denial by 
pretty good arguments. ‘ The French are a 
much more numerous people than we, and 
it is not likely that they would allow us to 
take it.’ ‘ But the ministry have assured us, 
in all the formality of a gazette, that it is 
taken.’ ‘ Very true, but the ministry have 
put us to an enormous expense by the war 
in America, and it is their interest to per¬ 
suade us, that we have got something for our 
money.’ ‘ But the fact is confirmed by thou¬ 
sands of men who were at the taking of it.* 
‘ Ay, but these men have still more interest 
in deceiving us. They don’t want that you 
should think that the French have beat 
them, but that they have beat the French.’ 
Now suppose you should go over and find 
thatit really is taken, that would only satis¬ 
fy yourself, for when you come home we will 
not believe you, we will say that you have 
been bribed. Yet, sir, notwithstanding all 
these plausible objections, we have no doubt 
that Canada is really taken. Such is the weight 
of common testimony; how much stronger 
are the evidences of the Christian religion!” 

Oti another occasion, in connection with 


THE DIT11CK ORIGIN 


202 


some other weighty observations, Mr Bos¬ 
well describes him as referring to the same 
subject. Of a gentleman who was mention¬ 
ed, Johnson said, “ I have not met with any 
man for a long time who has given me such 
general displeasure, he is totally unfixed in 
his principles, and wants to puzzle other peo¬ 
ple.” “ I ( Boswell ) said, that his principles 
had been poisoned by a noted infidel writer, 
but that he was nevertheless a benevolent 
good man.” Johnson , “We can have no 
dependence upon that instinctive, that consti¬ 
tutional benevolence and goodness which is 
not founded upon principle. I grant you that 
such a man may be a very amiable member 
of society; I can conceive him placed in such 
a situation that he is not much tempted to 
deviate from what is right; and, as every man 
prefers virtue when there is not some strong 
incitement to transgress its precepts, I can 
conceive him doing nothing wrong; but if 
such.a man stood in need of money, I should 
not like to trust him. Hume and other scepti¬ 
cal innovators are vain men who will gratify 
themselves at any expense; truth will not 
afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they 
have betaken themselves to error. If I could 
have allowed myself to gratify rnv vanity at 
the expense of truth, what fame might I have 
acquired! Every thing which Hume has ad¬ 
vanced against Christianity had passed 
through my mind long before he wrote. Al¬ 
ways remember this, that after a system is 
well settled by positive evidence, a few par- 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


203 


tial objections ought not to shake it. The hu¬ 
man mind is so limited, that it cannot take in 
all the parts of a subject, so that there may be 
objections raised against any thing.” 

If you have doubts respecting the dirin ity 
of Christianity, sit down to the question of its 
heavenly origin with a candid mind. A great 
and good man once observed, u The Bible 
will treat you as you treat the Bible.” If 
you come to it for instruction, you will find 
it; if you seek consolation, you will obtain 
it; but if you come to hunt for objections and 
to cavil, God will permit you to cavil and to 
find objections there. Even Byron, when he 
drew near eternity, could write:4- 

<£ Within this awful volume lie3 L 
The mystery of mysteries. 

Happiest they of human race 
To whom their God has given grace 
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 

To lift the latch, and force the way. 

But better ne’er to have been born, 

Than read, to doubt, or read to scorn .'’ 

If you have doubts, and with an honest 
mind would pursue the important inquiry be¬ 
fore you, you tnav find much information in 
a little compass, in such works as Paley’s 
Evidences, Bogue’s Essay, Watson’s Apol¬ 
ogies,Doddridge’s three Sermons on the Evi¬ 
dences of Christianity,Gregory’s Letters,&c. 

2. Perhaps you acknowledge the divine 
origin of the Bible, and profess yourself a 
Christian, but you object to the distinguishing 


204 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


peculiarities of the gospel, because, in some 
things, they exceed the power of human 
comprehension. The mysteries of the Trinity 
and the incarnation of the Son of God con¬ 
found you, and are stumbling blocks to you. 

if this be the state of your mind, consider 
that these are subjects of pure revelation; all 
our knowledge of them must come from 
God, who alone is fully acquainted with 
what concerns his own nature and proceed¬ 
ings. And where revelation is concerned, 
humility of mind is an indispensable requi¬ 
site for a satisfactory investigation of divine 
truth. If you wish to be taught of God, you 
must submit the powers of boasted reason to 
him. You are to employ those powers to 
judge of the evidences which prove Christian¬ 
ity a religion from heaven; but when once 
that conviction is obtained, it then becomes 
your duty to believe whatever God declares , 
however incomprehensible; on this obvious 
principle, that he is acquainted with the truths 
revealed in his word infinitely better than 
his creatures can be. To see men trying the 
doctrines of revelation by what they are 
pleased to term thb dictates of reason, and 
then rejecting divine truths because unable 
to comprehend them by r their insect powers, 
may remind us of the poet’s words: 

“ The moles and bats in full assembly find; 

On special search, the keen-ey’d eagle blind. s> 

God leaves the proud to wander in their 
own delusions, and to perish in the folly of 


OF CHRISTIANITY, 


205 


their boasted wisdom. He resisteth the 
proud, but giveth grace to the humble. He 
knovveth the thoughts of the wise that they 
are vain. If you would know his will, you 
must inquire for truth with child-like sim¬ 
plicity; must desire the sincere milk of the 
word that you may grow thereby. Jesus 
praised God that he had hid these things from 
the wise and prudent,and revealed them unto 
babes. If to become one of these babes,in child¬ 
like teachableness and simplicity,is too humb- 
ing for you, you are no scholar in the school 
of Christ. Go,then, and,“ Indian-like,” adore 
your idol reason. Go join the upstart ranks of 
the wise, and compliment each other on your 
wisdom and superiority to the credulous crowd 
who are so simple as to suppose that God 
knows his own nature better than they. Go 
spread your philosophic cobwebs; like other 
cobwebs, they will last their hour; but re¬ 
member, the rough hand of death will sweep 
you and them together to destruction; and 
Heaven will pour down eternal blessings on 
the babe in Christ whom you despise, when, 
notwithstanding all your fancied worth and 
wisdom, it has no blessing left for you. 

You object to the doctrine of the Trinity 
as mysterious. Point, then, to some object 
in nature that is not mysterious, before you 
hesitate to receive the declarations of the 
scriptures for describing a mysterious God. 

A blade of grass contains mysteries that no 
philosopher can unravel. Should the na¬ 
ture of the Creator of the universe be less 


206 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


mysterious than that of a blade of grass! — 
Look at yourself, you are a world of mys¬ 
teries. What is your body? You cannot 
answer. What is your spirit? You are 
still more unable to reply, and can no more 
comprehend your own spirit, than you can 
the God of heaven. How does spirit act on 
matter? Your limbs move at the direction 
of your mind. Still you can give no satis¬ 
factory statement. You are engulphed in 
mystery. Does your nature consist of a 
body and a spirit merely, or do a body, an 
animal soul, and an immortal spirit unite in 
you? Even this you cannot answer, nor tell 
whether you yourself are compounded of 
two or of three distinct parts or principles. 
Let man, then, comprehend and explain his 
own nature before he endteavors to unfold 
that of the infinite God; then it will be soon 
enough to doubt the divinity of Jesus, be¬ 
cause it is a subject fraught with mystery.— 
On this subject an able writer remarks, tc As 
to the doctrine of the Trinity, it is even 
more amazing than that of the Incarnation: 
yet, prodigious and amazing as it is, such is 
the incomprehensible nature of God, that I 
believe it will be extremely difficult to prove 
from thence that it cannot possibly be true. 
The point seems to be above the reach of 
reason,and too wide for the grasp of human 
understanding. However, I have often ob¬ 
served, in thinking of the eternity and im¬ 
mensity of God; of his remaining from eter¬ 
nity to the production of the first creature, 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


207 


without a world to govern, or a single being 
to manifest his goodness to; of the motives 
that determined him to call his creatures in¬ 
to being; why they operated when they did, 
and not before; of his raising up intelligent 
beings,whose wickedness and misery he fore** 
saw; of the state in which his relative attri¬ 
butes, justice,bounty, and mercy, remained 
through an immense space of duration, be¬ 
fore he had produced any creatures to exer¬ 
cise them towards; in thinking, I say, of 
these unfathomable matters, and of his rais¬ 
ing so many myriads of spirits, and such 

5 jrodigious masses of matter out of nothing; 

' am lost and astonished as much as in the 
contemplation of the Trinity. There is but 
a small distance in the scale of being be¬ 
tween a mite and me: although that which 
is food to me is a world to him, we mess, not¬ 
withstanding,on the same cheese, and breathe 
the same air; yet howincomprehensible must 
rny nature and actions be to him! He can 
take but a small part of me with his eye at 
once; and it would be the work of his life to 
make the tour of my arm; I can eat up his 
world, immense as it seems to him, at a few 
meals: he, poor reptile! cannot tell but there 
may be a thousand distinct beings or persons, 
such as mites can conceive, in so great a be¬ 
ing. By this comparison! find myselfvastly 
capacious and comprehensive; and begin to 
swell still bigger with pride and high 
thoughts; but the moment I lift up my mind 
to God, between whom and me there is an 


20S 


7HZ DIVINE ORIGIN 


infinite distance, then I myself become a mite, 
or something infinitely less; I shrink almost 
into nothing. I can follow him but one or 
two steps in his lowest and plainest works, 
till all becomes mystery and matter of amaze¬ 
ment to me. How, then, shall I comprehend 
God himself? How shall I understand his 
nature, or account for his actions? In these, 
he plans for a boundless scheme of things, 
whereas I can see but an inch before me: in 
that he contains what is infinitely more incon¬ 
ceivable than all the wonders of his creation 
put together; and I am plunged in astonish¬ 
ment and blindness when I attempt to stretch 
my wretched inch of line along the immensi¬ 
ty of his nature. Were my body so large 
that I could sweep all the fixed stars, visible 
from this world in a clear night, and grasp 
them in the hollow of my hand; and were 
my soul capacious in proportion to so vast a 
body; I should, notwithstanding, be infinite¬ 
ly too narrow-minded to conceive his wisdom 
when he forms a fly; and how, then, should 
I think of conceiving of himself ? No; this is 
the highest of all impossibilities. His very 
lowest work checks and represses my vain 
contemplations, and holds them down at an 
infinite distance from him. When we think 
of God in this light, we can easily conceive 
it possible, that there may be a trinity of per¬ 
sons in his nature.” 

The incarnation and sufferings of the Son 
of God are indeed a subject replete with 
wonder. That he who was rich for our 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


200 


sakes should become poor, that we through 
his poverty might be rich; should appear as 
“ God manifest in the desh,” is indeed mys¬ 
terious grace. The transcendent excellence 
of this wonder of love has awakened grati¬ 
tude in many hearts which has been con¬ 
tinued through life, and will last to eternity. 
This forms the brightest glory of those 

Doctrines that nerv’d the martyr’s heart, 
And ecstacy to heaven impart; 

That live in every angel’s song, 

And glow on every ransomed tongue.’ 1 

If we then permit the greatness of this love, 
transcending all thought and expression, to 
become a reason for doubting its reality, or 
hesitating to yield to its influence, of what 
unutterably base ingratitude should we be 
guilty! 

3. Perhaps you are not an unbeliever, nor 
do you profess to doubt the great doctrines of 
the gospel; but you are a mere nominal 
Christian, and a consequent trifler with eter¬ 
nal realities. It was the remark of a per¬ 
son once active in the busy world, when ac¬ 
cused of being too serious, that every thing 
but man is serious. But there are situations 
in which triflers must feel. Take a midnight 
walk in yonder churchyard, and you may 
feel what you, perhaps, never felt before,— 
that the pursuits of this world are dreams, 
and life itself a vapor. While the solemn 
silence of those regions of the dead hushes 
every tumultuous passion, while the moon 
14 


210 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


shines on these turf-covered graves, or by its 
light assists you on the stones to discern 
when it was said to those who sleep beneath, 
Your time shall be no more, surely you must 
ask yourself, Where am I? whither am I go¬ 
ing? When this deep silence solemnizes the 
minds of the next age, when they mark the 
moon passing through the cloudless sky of fu¬ 
ture years, and shining on my grave, where 
shall I be fixed? These who have moulder¬ 
ed here for ages, once resembled me, and I 
must soon resemble them. 

“ They suffer’d—but their pangs are o’er; 

Enjoyed—but their delights are fled; 

Had friends—their friends are now no ruore; 

Had foes—their foes are dead. 

They saw whatever I have seen; 

Encounter’d all that troubles me; 

They were, whatever I have been; 

They are y what I shall be.” 

The cares aud fears, the hopes and joys, 
that once were theirs, now distract and per¬ 
plex or delight me; and when I have left all 
these to lie down in the dust of death, will 
fresh pains torment or fresh joys delight me, 
pains or joys not like those of shadowy life, 
but to extend through vast eternity? Yes, 
they will. And only the Lord Jesus, that 
Lord whom you call Savior, but whom you 
slight, can lead you to mansions of peace.— 
How unreasonable is your conduct in tri¬ 
fling with religion! a professed believer, a 
practical unbeliever , for such are all whose 


Of CHRISTIANITY. 


Sll 


first concern is not to live to Christ. Do you 
doubt the correctness of this assertion ? per¬ 
mit me then to inquire, should you fear a 
threatening dagger? should you dread to 
swallow a bowl of poison? You know you 
would; but why? have you ever felt the 
miseries inflicted by a dagger or by poison? 
You have not. Why, then, would you fear 
them? You know the reason; because you 
believe, on the testimony of others, the 
dreadful effects of daggers and of poisons. 
You dread them through belief. Here you 
are a believer on human testimony. A great¬ 
er than mortals, a greater than angels, the 
Lord Jesus Christ himself, declares that you 
are a lost creature, and tells you of scenes of 
misery to which sin leads, more dreadful than 
the most dreadful here. Of a world where 
eternal horror reigns; where miseries beyond 
description dwell; where, could they inflict a 
second death, daggers and poisons would be 
blessings indeed, blessings fought for more 
earnestly than crowns on earth! He tells 
you of an eternal hell, which sin has merited, 
and to which sin is sinking you, and do you 
believe? Oh! if you did, you would flee 
from the wrath to come. 

A friend tells you of some important good 
that you may obtain: you follow it. Of some 
pleasures you may enjoy: you pursue them. 
Why? Because you believe his word, and 
believe they will increase your satisfaction. 
Perhaps you are ill. An acquaintance tells 
you of a medicine that is an infallible anti- 


«1 # 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


dote to jour disorder: you take it. Why? 
have you ever tried its virtues? No; but you 
believe him who has. In all these cases you 
are a believer, and faith leads you to pursue 
desired good. 

God tells you in his word that, pitying your 
misery, and concerned for your happiness, 
he gave his best beloved to suffer in your 
place. This divine Friend calls you to fol¬ 
low him, and tells you of pardon, peace, and 
heaven. He assures you that eternal life is 
the heritage of his disciples. Now would he 
make you an heir of heaven; but beyond the 
grave will never extend to you a pitying, 
helping hand. All this he declares to you in 
his word. You profess, perhaps, to believe 
it all, and, oh dreadful, you slight it all. Do 
you believe him ? What infatuation ! what 
want of common sense to suppose you do! 
No! if you did, you would flee to the shelter 
of his cross, and find salvation there. No! 
if you did believe him, you would not prefer 
earth to heaven, and a moment to eternity. 
No! if you did believe him, you would not 
continue dying of sin, and careless of the 
great Physician. Did you really believe 
what the Son of God reveals, you would fol¬ 
low him as your Guide, your Savior, and 
your all. And while you neglect this, what 
are you but a practical infidel, and in one 
respect one of the worst kind of infidels? It 
is natural for those who reject his divine au¬ 
thority, to slight his discoveries, but you pro¬ 
fess yourself his disciple, and yet, by a 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 215 

careless life, imitate the conduct of infi¬ 
dels ! 

Ah! what solemn scenes will soon open 
upon you! an endless world and all its end¬ 
less joys or woes; the mighty Redeemer and 
the eternal God. Were there only a proba¬ 
bility of that solemn world, it might be suffi¬ 
cient to make a reasonable creature indifferent 
to one so transitory and perishing as this; but 
here it is not barely probability, it is certain¬ 
ty; and yet will you grasp at the passing 
shadows of this world, and neglect the endless 
realities of the other ! Now you say of a part 
of life, It is gone, yet you look forward, and 
hope for other years to come; but what will 
be your state, when looking backward, you 
must say, Time is gone; and looking for¬ 
ward, Eternity is come. Oh that awful, 
that dreadful eternity ! how will it torment 
the murderers of time! how will it teach 
the thoughtless sinner, and the mere nomi¬ 
nal Christian, their folly and their madness! 
Your conduct is not only unwise and unrea¬ 
sonable in professing to believe the Bible, 
yet neglecting religion, but your guilt is 
great, and your lot is wretched. Think of 
the love of the Lord Jesus,and how aggrava¬ 
ted must your guilt be in neglecting him.— 
When the apostle refers to this subject., he 
represents this Jove as incomprehensible;— 
“ that ye may be able to comprehend wdth 
all saints what is the breadth, and length, and 
depth, and height, and to know the love of 
Christ, which passeth knowdedge.” We 


214 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


have reason to believe the Savior’s incarna¬ 
tion, the most amazing event that ever hap¬ 
pened, even in the records of eternity; and 
to believe that through an eternity to come 
it will never have an equal. 

Were “ all the love of all the men that 
ever were or shall be on the earth, and all 
the love of all the angels in heaven, united 
in one heart, it would be a cold heart to that 
which was pierced with the soldier’s spear.” 
And do you neglect that Savior who spread 
the heavens abroad, and who created the 
earth beneath you? Do you indulge no 
thoughts of his love, or let any trifling folly 
drive such thoughts away? Do you forget 
the eternal bliss of heaven, and the bitter 
agonies and bloody sufferings of the compas¬ 
sionate Savior? and forget all these for 
trifles so mean, that they would not drive 
from your thoughts one day of promised plea¬ 
sure? and yet they can induce you to forget 
a gracious God, a crucified Savior, and an 
eternal world. Ah! foolish creature and un¬ 
wise, thus to requite the Lord and Giver of 
salvation! 

Surely the motives that have been men¬ 
tioned should be sufficient to lead you no lon¬ 
ger to rest satisfied with being nominally a 
Christian, but to constrain you to devote your¬ 
self to God. But other motives may be urged. 
Think of the countless mercies of the Most 
High. God made you what you are, and 
gave you your exalted place in the scale of 
being. You might have been a brute, but he 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


215 


blessed you with a human form, and an im¬ 
mortal soul. You enjoy the use of reason. 
It is his gift. You might have been an idiot 
or a maniac. Do you possess hearing, 
speech, sight? Can you taste, feel, smell? 
It is he who has blessed you with these pow¬ 
ers; you might have been deaf, dumb, and 
blind, unable to smell, or feel, or taste. Per¬ 
haps you were born to the enjoyment of 
wealth: consider that, but for his goodness, 
you might have been a beggar’s or a gipsy’s 
child. If not wealthy, you are probably pla¬ 
ced in a situation which affords you many 
temporal comforts. He placed you there. 
You might have been an Arab, wandering 
and famishing in burning deserts; a Koon- 
kee, dwelling with the wild beasts in dens or 
trees; a Bushman or a Hottentot, sunk al¬ 
most to a level with the brute creation. You 
have had parents or friends, whose love 
cheered and blessed your early years. God 
gave them. You might have been born 
where heathenism destroys natural affection, 
and parents offer their children to Moloch. 
God has been kind in fixing your lot; and 
has he not been as kind in the dealings of his 
providence? Of how many comforts has be 
been the Giver! through how many years has 
he been your Preserver! Your body is form¬ 
ed like a delicate yet complicated machine, 
and one part disordered might have disorgan¬ 
ized all the rest. Yet he has kept its parts in 
action, and preserved and regulated the 
whole. 


216 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


Survey your past years. They have been 
years of mercy. He has watched over you 
by day and by night. How many days of ease 
have you enjoyed! How many nights of 
security have you passed, when, sunk in sleep 
and insensibility, jmu had none to secure you 
but God! Have you enjoyed health? He 
gave it. Has sickness, if it visited you, yet 
made but a transient visit? He ordered its 
departure, raised you from the bed of pain, 
and brightened your pallid countenance with 
the returning bloom of health. Have you 
lived many years and never, even for a day , 
been destitute of needful food and decent 
clothing? God has supplied these wants 
through all the days of those departed years. 
Have you, from the moment of your birth to 
this hour, had friends who have been the sol¬ 
ace of your life? God gave those friends. 
Perhaps you have seen twenty, thirty, or 
more years roll away, can you say of one day 
in all those years, That day God forgot me; 
that day I had nothing from his bounty? You 
know you cannot; though you doubtless can 
say, 1 forgot him for many long rebellious 
years. Through what changing scenes has 
he led you, and still been uniformly kind! 
and so kind that neither ingratitude nor re¬ 
bellion has ever checked the stream of his 
mercies. He blessed you in childhood. He 
watched overyou in youth; and if riper years 
have rolled over your head, he has crowned 
those years with all the mercies they have 
brought you. Through how many dangers 


OF CHRISTIANITY. tl7 

has he led you ! from how many storms has 
he sheltered you! 

Kind in providence, has he not been kinder 
still in grace? How much has God done to 
make you happy for ever! Compare your 
lot with the lot of millions! your holy light 
with their degrading darkness! Some com¬ 
pute six hundred millions of pagans to exist 
on earth. You might have been one, but 
God fixed your lot where the gospel spreads a 
cheering day. There are perhaps one hun¬ 
dred millions of papists, most of them sunk 
in ignorance. Why are you not one? Why 
were you not born where, instead of learning 
to adore God and the Lamb, you would have 
been taught to worship “ silver saviors and 
saints of gold?” and nursed up in supersti¬ 
tion and vice, have lived the slave of sin, be- 
lievingthat you could purchase of antichrist 
a pardon for your crimes? Have you a Bible? 
Millions never saw its holy pages. Why 
have you that precious book? Godbestowed 
it on you! 

But I address you as a partaker of still 
greater mercies. Think of God so loving 
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him, may not 
perish, but have everlasting life. Think of 
God commending his love towards us, in that 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; 
and O what miracles of love have been mani¬ 
fested to you ! Are these rich mercies in pos¬ 
session, richer in prospect, all the gift of that 
much injured, yet still benevolent Being, 


213 


THE DITINE ORIGIN 


God, and can he expect, or can you be will¬ 
ing to offer less in return than all you have 
and are? Has he given you life and health, 
a thousand comforts, and more than doubled 
all in giving Christ, and will you not devote 
to him yourself and your all? Would ho 
give you heaven, and is it much to devote to 
him a span of time on earth ? O r.ather pray, 
Merciful God! little, far too little, is the 
most I ever can devote to thee! and let me 
not make that little less, by offering a heart 
but half set on thee, and offering a life but 
half devoted to thee! Rather, O rather, 
whatever others do, enable me to offer to thee 
my heart, and my head, and my hands, my 
body, and my soul, and all I have, and all I 
am, an unworthy and insignificant, yet a liv¬ 
ing, and, through Jesus Christ, an acceptable 
sacrifice! 

Whatever you are, if you are not a hum¬ 
ble follower of the Savior, your state is 
fearful in the extreme. In those blessings 
that form the Christian’s portion, you have 
no share. God is not your reconciled Father. 
Jesus Christ is not your Savior and Shep¬ 
herd; Heaven is not your home. As sure 
as the scriptures are true, you are an heir of 
death, a slave of Satan, a child of wrath, an 
enemy of God, a traveller to hell. Every 
moment you are on the brink of destruction. 
There is only the breath in your nostrils be¬ 
tween you and hell; and nothing is wanting 
to sink you there but God’s command. A 
cold, an accident, or almost any trifle may 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


219 


be sufficient to cut your thread of life, and 
plunge you in eternal despair. The place 
of misery is your own place, you are ready 
for it. Your sins are all unpardoned—wrath 
follows you—hell is waiting to receive you. 
Death, your dread foe, is drawing nigh. 
Your last moment, your last comfort, are 
approaching. O, my fellow sinner, think of 
eternity, never will that time arrive when 
your soul shall cease to live. Were one per¬ 
son to enjoy all the pleasure that has ever 
been enjoyed in this world, by all the millions 
that have ever lived, all that united would he 
but as an atom of delight, a moment of plea¬ 
sure, compared with that enduring bliss, 
which ransomed souls possess in the king¬ 
dom of God. And were all the sufferings that 
through almost six thousand years have em¬ 
bittered so many lives, and broken so many 
hearts; were all the sicknesses and pains, and 
all the dying pangs of the countless millions 
that death has sw’ept away; were all these 
united and poured upon one unhappy head, 
it would be less than a drop compared with 
those mountainous billows of misery which, 
in the world to come, will overwhelm every 
lieglecter of the Son of God. These all 
would not form eternal sufferings, nor a- 
mount to everlasting sorrow. These im¬ 
mense sums of happiness or pain would have 
an end, but the joy or sorrow to which you 
are hastening can have none. How highly 
you value this fleeting life! How precious 
is even the uncertain prospect of a few years 


220 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


of peace and ease ! How bitter are suffer¬ 
ings when no end of them can be seen ! How 
bitter is it to the galley-slave to think, that 
the chain which binds him, binds him for 
life! How severe the sentence of perpetual 
imprisonment! were such your circumstan¬ 
ces, how insupportable would the load of 
misfortune appear! These chains for life! 
this imprisonment for life! What tenfold 
bitterness would the words C£ for life, 55 add 
to the prison and the chain. How great are 
sorrows when only death can end them ! Oh 
what will eternal sorrows be! sorrows to 
which no death can ever bring relief! Oh 
what will be the wretched creature’s lot who 
has through eternity to exclaim, “ Mercy 
once wooed me, but mercy is gone for ever! 
God pitied me, but has now left me for ever! 
the Savior I slighted is departed forever! 
for ever! Oh that dreadful for ever! Peace, 
and hope, and comfort, all have left me for 
ever ! and now this hellish prison is my abode 
forever! This dismal gloom! this eternal 
heartache, this tormenting flame, are my sad 
portion for ever ! O could that eternity be 
shortened ! 0 could one hope gleam across 

the eternal gloom ! O could death, though at 
the distance of infinite years, appear to end 
my sorrows and my being! but no such com¬ 
fort can visit me! There is no gleam of hope 
in the distance of eternal night. There is no 
death that can end my being. The death I 
suffer is the death that never dies. God, and 
Christ, and hope, and mercy, and peace, and 


OF CHRISTIANITY. 


n i 

ease, are all gone! woe! woe is ine! gone 
for ever and for ever ! 

Shall this be your lot? yours who are now 
reading this page? It roust, it will, if you 
neglect the Lord Jesus Christ. 

If through divine grace you devote your¬ 
self to God, and look to him to lead you in 
the way everlasting, then make his word 
your guide. Prize the Bible. If you read 
many books, still let the Bible be esteemed 
above them all; if but one, let that one be 
the Bible. 

Let it never be forgotten by you, that those 
Christians, whose piety has shone with the 
brightest lustre, whose hopes have been full¬ 
est of immortality, are those who have loved 
and valued most the word of God. It is rela¬ 
ted of De Renty, a French nobleman of most 
eminent piety, that he used every day on his 
knees to read three chapters in the word of 
God. On the other hand, how many Chris¬ 
tians of even eminent piety, when leaving 
the world, have lamented their folly in not 
having studied the scriptures more, and hu¬ 
man writings less. When that eminent 
Christian, James Hervey, who died in tri¬ 
umph, “apprehended himself to be near the 
close of life, with eternity full in view, he 
wrote to a friend at a distance to tell him 
what were his sentiments in that awful situa¬ 
tion. c I have been too fond,’ said he, £ of 
reading every thing valuable and elegant that 
has been penned in our language, and been 
peculiarly charmed with the historians, ora- 


252 THE DIVINE ORIGIN 

tors, and poets of antiquity : but were I to 
renew my studies, I would take my leave of 
those accomplished trifles: I would resign the 
delights of modern wits, amusement, and elo¬ 
quence, and devote my attention to the scrip¬ 
tures of truth. I would sit with much greater 
assiduity at my divine Master’s feet, and de¬ 
sire to know nothing in comparison of Jesus 
Christ, and him crucified.”’ 

What is there in human science compared 
with the solemn discoveries of the Bible? 
Other books are for time, butUhis for eterni¬ 
ty ! Other knowledge amuses a few short 
moments here, this directs to never-ending 
good hereafter. Other wisdom pleases or 
profits for the transientday ©f life; this is the 
source of unfailing blessings for infinite pe¬ 
riods beyond the hour when stars and sun 
shall cease to shine. Other learning may 
gain the applause of a few frail creatures, 
whose applause must soon be hushed for ever 
by the hand of death; but divine knowledge 
will direct the soul to the raptures of eternal 
day, and insure the approbation of the King 
of kings, and the welcome congratulations of 
angelic myriads, in the presence of Him, who 
is, and who was, and who is to come; the 
Eternal, the Almighty. Thus as much as 
eternity excels time in importance, as much 
as an infinite life of bliss outweighs the ad¬ 
vantages of a fleeting hour; so much the pre¬ 
cious Bible excels in value all that ora¬ 
tors, philosophers, historians, and poets 
ever wrote; all that human wisdom ever 


OF CHRISTIANITY. S25 

inspired; all that a vain world ever extol¬ 
led. 

Perhaps after all that can be urged to gain 
your heart to God, you are one that will tri¬ 
fle with eternal things. If so, what remains 
for you but a fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation. Oh mournful folly! 
sad infatuation! “ The wretch that is con¬ 
demned to die to-morrow cannot forget it,” 
andean you, whose death is equally certain, 
though perhaps not quite so near, can you 
forget that gospel which brings life and im¬ 
mortality to light,that religion which gives the 
only title to mansions in the skies! Oh, if 
you now forget it, the time is coming, when 
you will do so no more. When the frame 
of nature shall be dissolved, when the heav¬ 
ens shall shrivel up like a scroll,and the vast 
world be sinking in final flames, when the 
great and mighty hills start from their places, 
and wretched men long to hide beneath their 
burning ruins : then you will not forget it.— 
When standing with all the risen dead be¬ 
fore the judgment-seat of the Lord Jesus, 
then you will not forget it; then whilst in 
awful silence you await your eternal doom, 
you may recollect this very exhortation to re¬ 
ceive the Savior; and when fixed in your e- 
ternal home,amidst the wailings of unuttera¬ 
ble despair, then you will never forget it. 

4. Perhaps the eye that reads this page 
is an eye that sees no glory like that it sees 
in Christ; yet if you have reason to hope it 
is so, still it is needful often to commune 


224 


THE DIVINE ORIGIN 


with your own heart; often to examine your 
own condition; and often to look up in fer¬ 
vent prayer for grace to advance in the di¬ 
vine life. Let this little volume prompt you 
to prize the Lord Jesus , as a believer. A 
Martyr, when asked if he loved not his wife 
and family, replied, “ Yes. if the world were 
gold, and were mine to dispose of, I would 
give it to live with them, though it were but in 
prison; yet my soul and Christ are dearer to 
me than all. 55 

Is such your value for the Savior? Can 
you for his sake endure the frown of friends? 
the ridicule of former companions ? Can you 
deny yourself your wisdom, your compan¬ 
ions, your pleasures, your profits, your ease, 
your character, your liberty, your life, and 
sacrifice all that is dearest to your heart, for 
Jesus’sake? If he esteems you wise, care 
you not who deems you foolish; if he smiles, 
care you not who frowns; if he approves, it 
is to you a little matter who condemns; if he 
bless, it is to you comparatively a trifle, 
though all around you curse. 

Live as a believer; let it be your daily 
prayer that faith may govern your heart, di¬ 
rect your choice, rule your conduct, fire your 
love, wing your desires, strengthen your 
hopes, and enable you to live on earth as a 
stranger travelling to heaven. If it be gen¬ 
uine, if it be saving, these will be its ef¬ 
fects. 

Make it your study and, prayer to bring 
faith into daily and hourly exercise. You 


©F CHRISTIANITY. 


*25 

believe in a gracious, an all-seeing, and al¬ 
mighty God : act as in his sight. You believe 
in an atoning Savior: look daily to’him as 
your life, your all. You believe in eternal 
judgment: now live as one whose actions 
and thoughts must then be scrutinized; live 
as you will wish to have done, when stand¬ 
ing to receive the sentence of your Judge.— 
You believe that there is a happy heaven: 
pursue it with that earnestness which eternal 
fife demands. You believe that there is a 
miserable prison of eternal punishment: 
watch and pray against sin, the source of 
misery, the cause of the creation of hell. You 
believe that your way to eternity is beset 
with snares: watch and pray lest you enter 
into temptation. You believe that you are 
dark in your reason, and weak in your pow¬ 
ers : listen then with all humility to him, 
whose knowledge is as boundless as yours is 
confined. Receive implicitly whatever Je¬ 
sus has revealed; and let it be enough to en¬ 
gage your belief, that he has said it. You 
believe that you are weak; let frequent dai¬ 
ly prayer implore the guidance and strength 
of your God and Savior, to attend you 
through the world, down to death, and up to 
glory. Thus live as a believer. And when 
a few more suns have risen and set; when a 
few more days, and weeks, and months have 
rolled away; when you have suffered a few 
more of the pains, and enjoyed a few more of 
the pleasures of life; your days will be num¬ 
bered, vour time will be no longer, your 
15 


224 THE DIVINE ORIGIN, &C. 

farewell must be taken of earthly comfort, 
and your freedom from earthly pain will be 
complete. Then will you see what you now 
believe. Faith will then be charged to sight, 
and hope be lost in certainty,possession, and 
eternal joy. 


» 


/ 


CONTENTS, 


Pag®. 

CHAPTER I. 

On the importance of theinquiry as to th e di¬ 
vine origin of Christianity! 8 

CHAPTER II. 

Christianity proved to be from God, by the mira¬ 


cles which were wrought in attestation of its 
divine origin. 14 

CHAPTER III. 

The prophecies of the Old and New Testament 
a proof of the divine origin of Christianity. 82 

CHAPTER IV. 

The practical tendency of Christianity, an in¬ 
fallible proof of its Divine origin. 119 

CHAPTER V. 

The Necessity of Revelation. 164 

Concluding Address, 169 



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